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THE THREE PATHS 



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Copyright, 1921 
THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY INC. 



JUN -7 iy2i 

5CU617263 



THE EDITORIAL BOARD 

OF 

THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



General Editor: William Byron Forbusii, Ph.D., Litt.D. 
Author of "The Manual of Play" and "The Boy Problem in the Home" 



Associate Editor: 

MRS. MINNETTA SAMMIS LEONARD, 

Formerly Director of the Model Kindergarten, State 

Normal School, Milwaukee ; Mother 

Music Editor: 

WiNTON James Baltzell, A.B., Mus.Bac. 

Secretary of the National Academy of Music, 



Associate Editor: 

MRS. BERTHA PAYNE NEWELL, 

Recently Head of the Department of Kindergarten 

Education, University of Chicago ; Mother 

Assistant Office Editor: 

Mary V. Worstell 
Author, Editor, and Lecturer 



New York 



Office Editor: Jennie Ellis Burdick 
Editor of "The Children's Own Library" 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



MRS. ELIZABETH HUBBARD BONSALL, 
Formerly of Wellesley College; Mother 
GRACE L. BROWN, 
Teacher of Kindergarten Education, Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University 

JOSEPHINE BROWNSON, 

Of the University of Detroit; Author of "To the 

Heart of a Child" 

MRS. EUNICE BARSTOW BUCK, 

Mother 

MRS. RHEA SMITH COLEMAN, 

Formerly of Western Reserve University ; Mother 

EDNA E. HARRIS, 

Primary Teacher in Public School Number 60, 

Brooklyn 

MRS. ELSIE L.<\VERNE HILL, 

Formerly of Oberlin College ; Mother 

JESSIE SCOTT HIMES, 

Teacher of Nature Study, Oneonta State Normal 

School 



MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN, 

Of the State University of Iowa: Mother 

WILLIAM A. McKEEVER, LL.D., 

Head of Department of Child Welfare, University 

of Kansas 

M. V. O'SHEA, 

Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin 

LUELLA A. PALMER, 

Assistant Supervisor of Kindergartens, 

New York City 

MARY E. PENNELL, 
Director of the City Normal School, Richmond, Va. 

MARY E. RANKIN, 

Superintendent of the Kindergarten, Union School of 

Religion, New York City 

MRS. ALICE CORBIN SIES, 
Recently Associate Professor of Childhood Educa- 
tion, University of Pittsburgh ; Mother 

MRS. ROSE BARLOW WEINMAN, 
Mother 



PARTIAL LIST OF AUTHORS REPRESENTED IN THE HOME 

KINDERGARTEN MANUAL BY SELECTIONS FROM 

THEIR WRITINGS 



JULIA \V. ABBOTT, 

Kindergarten Specialist, United States Bureau of 

Education 

MARY ADAIR, 
Teacher in the Philadelphia Normal School 

FATHER ALEXANDER, O.F.M.. 
Author of "The Catholic Home" 

CAROLYN SHERWTN BAILEY, 

Author of "Montessori Children" and "For the 

Children's Hour" 

HENRY TURNER BAILEY, 

Director of the Cleveland School of Art and John 

Huntington Polytechnic Institute, Cleveland 

WADE CRAWFORD BARCLAY, D.D., 
Editorial Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church 

A. B. BARNARD, 
Author of "The Home Training of Children" 

FREDERICA BEARD, 
Author of "The Beginners' Worker and Work" 

KATHERINE BEEBE, 
Author of "The Home Kindergarten" 

MRS. THEODORE W. BIRNEY, 
Founder of the National Congress of Mothers 

SUSAN E. BLOW, 

Author of "Letters to a Mother on the Philosophy 

of Froebel" 

PRUDENCE BRADISH, 
Author of "Mother-Love in Action" 

MAUD BURNHAM, 
Author of "Rhymes for Little Hands" 

MRS. CAROLINE BENEDICT BURRELL, 
Editor of "The Mother's Book" 

CALVIN B. CADY, 
Director of the Music Education Association 

MRS. HELEN Y. CAMPBELL, 
Author of "Practical Motherhood" 

SUSAN CHENERY, 
Author of "As the Twig is Bent" 

KATE S. CHITTENDEN, 

President of the Metropolitan College of Music, 

New York City 

PERCIVAL CHUBB, 

Leader of the Ethical Society, St. Louis ; author of 

"Teaching of English in Elementary and 

Secondary Schools" 



HON. PHILANDER P. CLAXTON, Litt.D., 

LL.D., 

United States Commissioner of Education 

HENRY F. COPE, D.D. 

Secretary of the Religious Education Association ; 

Author of "Religious Education in the Family" 

LUCILE C. DEMING, 
Bureau of Educational Experiments, New York City 

JOHN DEWEY, Ph.D., LL.D., 
Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University 

ELLA VICTORIA DOBBS, 
Professor in the University of Wisconsin 

MRS. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER, 
Author of "The Montessori Mother" 

ARNOLD L. and BEATRICE C. GESELL, 

Author of "The Normal Child and Primary 

Education" 

MABEL R. GOODLANDER, 

Teacher in tlie Ethical Culture School, New York 

City 

KENNETH GRAHAME, 
Author of "Dream Days" and "The Golden Age" 

RABBI LOUIS GROSSMAN, D.D., 

Professor of Ethics, Theology and Pedagogics, 

Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati 

MRS. SIDONIE MATZNER GRUENBERG, 
Author of "Sons and Daughters" 

LEONARD GEORGE GUTHRIE, M.D., F.R.C.P., 

Author of "Functional Nervous Diseases in 

Childhood" 

G. STANLEY HALL, Ph.D., LL.D., 
President of Clark University 

ELIZABETH HARRISON, 

President of the National Kindergarten College, 

Chicago 

MRS. HARRIET HICKOX HELLER, 

President of the Portland (Ore.) Kindergarten 

Council 

PATTY SMITH HILL, 

Head of the Department of Kindergarten Education. 

Teachers College, Columbia University 

MRS. BERTHA HOFNER-HEGNER, 

Head of the Pestalozzi-Froebel Training School, 

Chicago 

CAROLINE LOUISA HUNT, 
Author of "Home Problems from a New Standpoint" 



PARTIAL LIST OF AUTHORS REPRESENTED— Continued 



CLARA WHITEHILL HUNT, 
Author of "What Shall We Read to the Children?" 

JEAN LEE HUNT, 

Secretary, Department of Information, Bureau of 

Educational Experiments, New York City 

BERTHA JOHNSTON, 
Editor of tlie Kindergarten-Primary Magazine 

WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK, Ph.D., 

Author of "Froebel's Kindergarten Principles 

Critically Examined" 

ALICE M. KRACKOWIZER, 
Author of "Projects in the Primary Grades" 

JOSEPH LEE, 
Author of "Play in Education" 

MRS. DELLA THOMPSON LUTES, 
Editor of "To-day's Housewife" 

WILLIAM McANDREW, Ph.D., 
Assistant Superintendent of Schools, New York City 

FRANK MORTON McMURRY, Ph.D., 

Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers 

College, Columbia University 

DAVID R. MAJOR, Ph.D., 
Author of "First Steps in Atental Growth" 

JENNY B. MERRILL, Pd.D., 

Formerly Supervisor of Kindergartens, 

New York City 

MRS. ALICE MEYNELL, 
Author of "The Children" 

COLUMBUS NORMAN MILLARD, 
Author of "A Parent's Job" 

IRVING ELGAR MILLER, 
Head of the Department of Education and Psychol- 
ogy, State Normal School, Bellingham, Wash. 

GRACE E. MIX, 

Head of Kindergarten Department, State Norma! 

School, Farmville, Va. 

MARIA MONTESSORI, M.D., 

Prominent Educator and Founder of the Montessori 

Houses of Childliood 

ANNIE E. MOORE, 

Primary Teacher, Teachers College, Columbia 

University 

ERNEST CARROLL MOORE, Ph.D., 
Author of "W'hat is Education?" 

MARGARET W. MORLEY, 
Author of "The Renewal of Life" 

CARRIE S. NEWMAN, 
Author of "The Kindergarten in the Home" 

MRS. ANNA G. NOYES, 
Author of "How I Kept My Baby Well" 



EMILIE POULSSON, 
Author of "Love and Law in Child Training" 

CAROLINE PRATT, 

Director of the City and Country School, 

New York City 

MARY L. READ, 
Author of "The Mothercraft Manual" 

WALTER SARGENT, 

Professor of Art Education in the University of 

Chicago 

CHARLES B. SCOTT, 
Author of "Nature Study and the Child" 

ELEANOR SMITH, 
Author of "Songs for Little Children" 

NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH, 
Author of "The Home-Made Kindergarten" 

FRANK N. SPINDLER, Ph.D., 
Author of "The Sense of Sight" 

JAMES SULLY, LL.D., 
Author of "Studies of Childhood" 

ALICE TEMPLE, 

Director Kindergarten- Primary Department, 

University of Chicago 

EDWARD LEE THORNDIKE, Ph.D.. 

Professor of Educational Psychology, Teachers 

College, Columbia University 

NINA CATHARINE VANDEWALKER 

Author of "The Kindergarten in American 

Education" 

HATTIE A. WALKER, 
Teacher in the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago 

ADDIE GRACE WARDLE, Ph.D., 
Author of "Handwork in Religious Education" 

ZELIA M. WATERS, 
Author of "First Lessons in Child Training" 

H. G. WELLS, 

Novelist; Author of "Joan and Peter," "God the 

Invisible King," etc. 

MRS. MAX WEST, 
Author of "Pre-natal Care" 

LUCY WHEELOCK, 

Head of the Wheelock Kindergarten Training School, 

Boston 

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN, 

Co-Author of "Kindergarten Principles and Practice," 

"Froebel's Gifts," "Froebel's Occupations," etc. 

WOODROW WILSON, 
Twenty-eighth President of the United States 

MRS. FLORENCE HULL WINTERBURN, 
Author of "The Mother in Education" 
MRS. MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M.D., 

Author of "Making the Best of Our Children" 



REAL MOTHERS WHOSE EXPERIENCE WE ARE USING 

TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 

MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN MRS. HELEN Y. CAMPBELL 

MRS. ANNA G. NOYES 

FRO.M THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 

MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN MRS. ANNA G. NOYES 

MRS. RHEA SMITH COLEMAN MRS. HARRIET HICKOX HELLER 

MRS. MINNETTA SAMMIS LEONARD MRS. HARRIET AYERS SEYMOUR 

MRS. EUNICE BARSTOW BUCK MRS. MAX WEST 

FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 

MRS. ALICE CORBIN SIES MRS. JEAN N. BARRETT 

MRS. ELSIE LaVERNE HILL MRS. RHEA SMITH COLEMAN 

MRS. PRESTON F. GASS MRS. CAROLINE BENEDICT BURRELL 

FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 

MRS. BERTHA PAYNE NEWELL MRS. MINNETTA SAMMIS LEONARD 

MRS. BERTHA BELLOWS STREETER MRS. ROSE BARLOW WEINMAN 

MRS. ELIZABETH HUBBARD BONSALL MRS. HARRIET HICKOX HELLER 

MRS. EUNICE BARSTOW BUCK MRS. LOUISE H. PECK 

MRS. MARGARET W. MORLEY MRS. DORA LADD KEYES 

MRS. BERTHA LEWIS 

FROM THE SIXTH TO THE EIGHTH BIRTHDAY 

MRS. SIDONIE MATZNER GRUENBERG MRS. BERTHA P.\YNE NEWELL 

MRS. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER MRS. FLORENCE HULL WINTERBURN 



vi 



CONTENTS 

TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 
PRELIMINARY PAPERS 

PACK 

Educating the Baby Before It is Born The Editors ^ 

How I Learned to Take Care of My Baby .... Mrs. Madeline Darragh Horn . . c 



THE COURSE OF TRAINING 

Looking Forward Through the Year William Byron Forbush . 

My First Year with John Mrs. Madeline Darragh Horn 



13 
17 



Charts 25, 26, 27 



29 
37 



WHAT TO EXPECT THE FIRST YEAR 

The First Year in a Baby's Life William Byron Forbush . . . 

The First Three Months Mrs. Alice Corbin Sies . . . 

My Baby Month by Month Mrs. Anna G. Noyes 3's 

Landmarks in a Baby's Progress Mrs. Helen Y. Campbell .... 39 

WHAT TO DO THE FIRST YEAR 

Some Beginnings The Editors 41 

Play and Games for the First Year Luella A. Palmer 45 

Finger-Plays and Other Action-Plays The Editors 46 

SUMMARY AND FORECAST 

Getting Acquainted with Tom and Sarah .... Williain Byron Forbush .... 49 

INDEX TO SUBJECTS Facing 54 

INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS Facing 54 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 

THE COURSE OF TRAINING 

Looking Forward Through the Year William Byron Forbush .... c.y 

John's Development and Training the Second Year . Mrs. Madeline Darragh Horn . . 59 
Charts 70, 72, 73 

WHAT TO EXPECT THE SECOND YEAR 

My Little Boy Month By Month Mrs. Anna G. Noyes ...... 75 

How the Senses Develop The Editors ^ . 75 

vij 



CONTENTS 



WHAT TO DO THE SECOND YEAR 



Playthings for the Second Year 

Playthings, Homemade 

Some Nursery Arts and Crafts 

Sense-Play with Margaret 

Plays, and Games for the Second Year . 

A Child's First Interest in Pictures .... 

Music for the Babies 

Traditional Finger-Plays and Imitative Plays . 

Preparations for Handwork 

Differences Between Infant and Adult Memory 
Habit-Training of Little Children .... 
"Baby-Talk" and Speech Defects .... 

The Gift of Tongues 

The Use 'of Mother Goose 

Reasoning in Early Childhood 

How a Spoiled Child Begins 

Teaching Self-Control 



Mary L. Read 

Mrs. Dorothy Canficld Fisher 
Mrs. Harriet Hickox Heller 
Mrs. Rhea Smith Coleman . 
Liiella A. Palmer .... 

The Editors 

I^Irs. Harriet Ayer Sevmour 



77 
78 
79 
81 
84 

85 
87 



I[Irs. Minnctta Sammis Leonard. . 89 

David R. Major, Ph.D 91 

Mi's. Eunice Barstoiv Buck ... 93 

M. V. O'Shea 98 

Mary Adair 100 

The Editors 102 

John Dewey, LL.D 105 

Katherine Beehe 106 

Mrs. Mar.y Wood-Allen, M.D. . . 107 



SUMMARY AND FORECAST 

The Second Year with Tom and Sarah 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS 
•INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS 



William Byron Forbnsh .... 109 

Facing 114 

Facing 114 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



THE COURSE OF TRAINING 

Looking Forward Through the Year 

A Child's Development and Training the Third Year . 

Charts 

What an Average Child May Be Able to Do By the 
End of This Year 



William Byron Forhush 
Mrs. Alice Corbin Sics 



138, 139. 



WHAT TO DO THE THIRD YEAR 

Plays and Games for the Third Year 

The Baby Yard 

Self-Expression During the Third Year . 
Big Tools for Small Hands .... 
Playthings Which the Father Can Make 
Memory-Work with Margaret 

'Pictures, a Fairyland 

Stories to Tell This Year 

Music During the Third Year 
Companionship : How to Furnish It . 
Getting Obedience Through Understanding 
Jessie's Beginnings in Helpfulness 

Orderliness and Tidiness 

Three-Year-Old Virtues 



Luclla A. Palmer .... 
Mrs. Dorothy Canficld Fisher 

Mary L. Read 

M. V. O'Shea 

William A. McKcevcr, LL.D. 
Mrs. Rhea Smith Coleman . 
Mrs. Rhea Smith Coleman . 

The Editors 

Mrs. Jean N. Barrett . 
Mrs. Preston F. Gass 
Mrs. Delia Thompson Lutes 
Mrs. Elsie LaV erne Hill . . 
Mrs. Caroline Benedict Burrell 
Mary L. Read .... 



117 
119 
140 

141 



143 

144 

146 
148 
149 

151 
152 
153 
15s 
157 
159 
161 

165 
166 



CONTENTS ix 

SUMMARY AND FORECAST ,^„ 

The Third Year with Tom and Sarah William Byron Forbush .... 169 

INDEX TO SUBJECTS Facing 172 

INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS Facing 172 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 

"The Kindergarten Period" 

THE COURSE OF TRAINING 

Looking Forward Through This Period William Byron Forbush .... 177 

A Child's Development and Training the Fourth, Fifth. 

and Sixth Years Mrs. Bertha Payne Newell . . . 183 

Charts . . . 256, 258, 259 

What an Average Child May Be Able to Do By the 

End of this Period 260 

A 'Round-the-Year Program The Committee on Curriculum of 

the International Kindergarten 
Union 260 



WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



Richard's Day 

The Fifth Year 

\\'hat a Child is Like the Sixth Year 



Frederica Beard 267 

. Mar.y L. Read 268 

Mary L. Read 271 



The Dawn of Independence Alma S. Sheridan 274 



WHAT TO DO FROIM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



Our Home Gymnasium 

Gymnastic Plays for this Period . 

Lively Imitative Plays 

Plays and Games for the Fourth Year . 
Aims and Methods in Constructive Play 



Beginnings in Handivork 

The Importance of Setf-Help 

Collecting Nature Materials 

Bead- Stringing 

"The Holy Gift of Color" 

Suggestions for Color-Play 

The Music Needs of the Kindergarten .... 

Music for the Early Years 

Some Play-Devices in Beginning Music 

How to Tell Stories 

The Selection of Stories for Kindergarten Children 
Fifty Best Kindergarten and Primary Stories . 



Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Bonsall . 277 

'Mrs. Harriet Hickox Heller. . . 282 

The Editors 284 

Luclla A. Palm-er 285 

The Committee on Curricidum of 
the International Kindergarten 

Union 287 

Mrs. Minnetta Sammis Leonard . 288 

Maria Montessori, M.D. . . . 294 

Katherine Beebe 295 

Mrs. Carrie S. Newman .... 298 

Elizabeth Harrison 300 

The Editofis 302 

Calvin B. Cady 305 

Mary E. Pennell 308 

Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Bonsall . 319 

Mary L. Read 326 

Annie E. Moore 326 

328 



CONTENTS 



The Poetry Habit 

Answering Questions About Sex .... 
The Religious Nurture of a Little Child 
The Religious Education of a Catholic Child 
The Religious Education of a Jewish Child 
Plays and Games for the Fifth Year . 

Self-Making 

Constructive Play 

Things to Make Out of Newspapers 
The Beginnings of Art for Little Children 
How the Child May Express Himself Through 



Pictures for the Home 
Learning to Use Language 



Art 



Mother, Father, and Child — Partners Three 

The Home Play- Yard 

Playthings Which the Father Can Make 



Plays and Games for the Sixth Year 

Play with Dolls 

An Litroduction to Nature Study 
Betty's Nature Friends . . . . 
Play with Neglected Senses 



Clara UliitchUl Hunt . . 

Margaret IV. Morlcy 

ll'illiain Byron Forhtisli . 

Josephine Brozvnson . 

Mrs. Rose Barloiv JVcinman 

Lnella A. Palmer .... 

.Susan B. Blow .... 

Grace L. Brown .... 

Mrs. Louise H. Peck 

Walter Sargent .... 

The Committee on Curriculum of 
tlie International Kindergarten 
Union 

Julia Wade Abbott 

Tlic Committee on Curriculum- of 
the International Kindergarten 
Union 

Maud Burnham 

Mrs. Dora Ladd Keyes .... 

Il'illiam A. McKeez'er. LL.D.. and 
Jean Lee Hunt 

Lnella A. Palmer 

The Editors 

Jessie Scott Himcs 

Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Bonsall . 

The Editors 



329 
331 
332 
338 
341 
349 
354 
355 
364 
365 



366 
369 



371 
373 

374 

375 
2,77 
382 

384 
391 
401 



William Bvron Forbush 



SUMMARY AND FORECAST 

Tom and Sarah During the Kindergarten Years 
What Should a Child Know When He Enters the 

First Grade? H. G. irdls .... 

At the School Door Elizabeth J. Woodward . 



405 

409 
412 



SUPPLEMENTAL ARTICLES 

Home Correctives for the Kindergarten 

The Kindergarten Years 

Freedom of Experiment in the Kindergarten 

The Trend of the Kindergarten To-day 

The Kindergarten at Horace Mann School. Teachers 
College 

Froebel and the Kindergarten To-day 

What Has the American Kindergarten to Learn from 
Montessori ? 

Making the Original Nature of the Child Into Some- 
thing Else 

W'hat is the Value of Play? 

Experiment, Imitation, Repetition, and Purpose . 

Ten Useful Purposes in Kindergarten Training 



Maximilia)! E. P. Groszmann. Pd.D. 417 

Irving E. Miller. Ph.D 419 

Frank M. McMurry. Ph.D. . 422 

Patty Smith Hill 425 



./()/;;/ Walker Harrington 

G. Stanley Hall. LL.D. . . . 

William Heard Kilpatrick. Ph.D. 

Edward L. Thorndike. Ph.D. . 

Luclla A. Palmer 

Luella A. Palmer 

Luclla A. Palmer 



427 
429 

432 

434 
435 
436 

437 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS Facing 440 



INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS Facing 440 



CONTENTS 



XI 



FROM THE SIXTH TO THE EIGHTH BIRTHDAY 



THE COURSE OF TRAINING p^ce 

A Look Forward Through This Period William Byron Forhush .... 445 

A Child's Development and Training the Seventh and Mrs. Bertha Payne Newell, Edna E. 

Eighth Years Harris, and Others .... 450 

Charts 500, 502, 503 

What an Average Child May Be Able to Do by the 

End of This Period 504 

A 'Round-the-Year Program Hattic A. Walker 504 

WHAT TO DO FROM THE SIXTH TO THE EIGHTH BIRTHDAY 



Ella Victoria Dobbs 509 

The Editors 511 

'The Editors 512 

Ella Victoria Dobbs 513 

The Editors 516 

Florence Hull Wintcrburn . . . 518 

Tlie Editors 521 

523 

Home Opportunities in English The Editors 530 

Methods in Beginning Reading Arnold L. Gesell, Ph.D 534 

Reading Journeys for Primary Children .... The Editors 537 

How Barbara Began Writing Wilson Follett 538 

Home Opportunities in Number The Editors 541 

How I Taught John Number and Reading .... Mrs. Bertha Bellows Strceter . . 542 

Early Music-Teaching in School Eleanor Smith 544 

Plays and Games for the Seventh Year Luella A. Palm-cr 545 

Plays and Games for the Eighth Year Luella A. Palmer 549 



The Transformed Primary School 

Materials Used in the New Primary School 
Home Opportunities in Practical Science . 

Primary Handwork 

Stories of Geography, Primitive Life, and History. 

Cultivating Observation 

Walks and Talks in Hometown 

A Study of a Rabbit Charles B. Scott, Ph.D 

Plays for Sharpening the Wits Mrs. Elisabeth Hubbard Bonsall 



SUMMARY AND FORECAST 

Tom and Sarah the Seventh Year and Beyond 

SUPPLEMENTAL ARTICLES 

The First Day of School 

Bridging Over from the Kindergarten to- Schooldays . 
The City and Country School, New York . . . . 
The Experimental Primary Class in the Ethical Cul- 
ture School 

Teachers College Playground 

The First Three Grades in School 

The Three Kinds of Modern Schools 

At What Age Should the Child Learn to Read? . . 

On Teaching History to Children 

How to Help the Memory 

First Experiences with French 

Early Training in Thrift 

The Child's First Collections 

Education in Clan Spirit 



William B\ 



Forbush . 



55 = 



Helen Campbell 571 

Nina C. Vandezualker. .... 572 

Caroline Pratt 574 

Mabel R. Goodlander .... 577 

Lucile C. Deming 579 

Columbus N. Millard .... 582 

Ernest Carroll Moore, Ph.D. . . 591 

Ed. Claparede 593 

Eva March Tap pan, Ph.D. . . . 594 

The Editors 595 

Mrs. Eliaabeth Hubbard Bonsall . 595 

The Editors 598 

The Editors 599 

The Editors 600 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS 



INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS 



Facing 600 
Facing 600 



CONTENTS 

MESSAGES OF INSPIRATION AND INFORMATION FOR THE 
HOME KINDERGARTEN 



MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS 

Some Hopes and Fears for tlie Kindergarten of the 

Future Patty Smith Hill .... 

Real Activities and the Kindergarten Bertha Hofner-Hcgncr . . 

Books for Children Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin . 

Why Kindergartens? Philander P. Claxton, LL.D. 

What's in a Name ? Luck Wheelock .... 

Froebel Had the American Spirit Jenny B. Merrill, Pd.D. . . 

What We May Learn from John Dewey .... William Byron Forbiish . . 



603 
607 
608 
610 
611 
612 
612 



GOOD CHEER FOR THE MOTHER-TEACHER 

The Advantages of the Mother-Teacher .... 

The Mother as Artist 

The Joy of Teaching 

How a Mother Can Get More Out of Life . . . 

The Mother's Harvest 

Dad 

What We Do Not Understand We Do Not Possess 



The Editors 








615 


Mrs. Ella Lyman Ca 


bot . 






618 


William McAndr^iv, 


Ph.D. 






621 


Caroline L. Hunt . 








622 


Susan Chenery 








625 


Henry Turner Bail 


-y . 






626 


Frank Crane, D.D. 








626 



REMEMBERED CHILDHOODS 

The Olympians Kenneth Grahamc 

The Playing Child in the Garden of Verses . . . . iniliam- Byron Forbush 

Fellow-Travelers with a Bird l^lrs. Alice Meynell . 

The Child in the House Jl'alter Pater . . . 

Why I Wanted to Learn to Read George Borrozv . 

"Una Mary" William Byron Forbush 

"Emmy Lou" WiUiam Byron Forbush 

The Children in Kensington Gardens lames Douglas 

The Dark Joan Ardcn . . . 

Memoirs of a Child: People Annie Steger. Winston 

Recreative Readings for Mothers about Remembered 

Childhoods The Editors 



629 
630 
632 
^34 
637 
639 
640 
641 
642 
644 

646 



DIVERS TYPES OF CHILDREN 

The Nervous Child .... 
The Contrary Child .... 
The Unstable Child .... 
The Obstinate Child .... 
The Passionate Child .... 
The "Cross" Child . . '. . 

The Fearful Child 

The Forgetful Child .... 
The Impudent Child .... 
The Lazy Child 

Imaginative Child .... 

Precocious Child .... 



The 
The 
The Motor Child and the Bookish Child 



Leonard Guthrie, M.D., F.R.S.C.P. 647 

M. V. O'Shea 652 

Cyril Burt 653 

Ellen Chine Buttemveiser, Ph.D. . 664 

Angeline W. Wrav 670 

M.'V. O'Shea . '. 673 

^frs. Theodore W. Birnev ■ . . 674 
M. V. O'Shea . . . .' . . .676 

Ji'illiam Byron Forbush .... 677 

.Sidonie Mafcner Grucnberg . . . 678 

Harriet Frances Carpenter . . . 679 

Leonard Guthrie, M.D 681 

M. V. O'Shea 685 



CONTENTS 



Xlll 



PLAY AND PLAYTHINGS 

The Early Impulses 

How Children Play at Each Age 

Education for Play 

A Graded Guide to Toys for Children 
Suggested Play Outfit for the Home . 



How to Make and Use Gesso 
A List of Games .... 



rAGE 

The Editors 68g 

Liiella A. Palmer 690 

Percival Chubb 694 

Mary L. Read 697 

Mrs. Newell, Mrs. Sies, Mrs. Horn, 
Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Coleman, 
Miss Brown, and Professor Patty 
Smith Hill, in Conference with 

Dr. Forbnsh 699 

John T. Lemos 704 

The Editors 707 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

The Beginnings of Religious Training Mary E. Rankin 711 

How to Interest Children in the Bible Jidia Brown 719 

The Catholic Mother and Her Child Father Alexander, O.F.M. ... 721 

The Kindergarten in the Religious School Rabbi Louis Grossman, D.D. . . 725 

Lessons for Beginners in Sunday-School Wade Crawford Barclay, D.D. . . 728 

Teaching the Bible by Handwork Addie Grace Wardle 729 

Learning to Serve Henry F. Cope. D.D 731 

The Program of Service of a Religious School .... 734 

The New Era and the Child 735 

Obedience Mrs. Elisabeth Hubbard Bonsall . 727 

Right Ways to Punish Rita S. Hale 738 

Golden Texts of Child Discipline Mrs. Gertrude H. Campbell . . . 739 

Habits A. B. Barnard 740 

Tantrums Prudence Bradish 741 

Truthfulness Mrs. Zelie M. Water.s .... 743 

Training the Will Carolyn Sherwin Bailey . . . 747 

Character Through Personal Example U'oodrow Wilson 749 

A Small Library of Moral and Religious Education . . 752 

APPENDIX 



Self-directed Work and Play 



Jennie Ellis Bendick, Bonnie E. 
Siiozv, Mary Lena Wilson. Dawti 
Powell Gousha, and others . . 755 



GENERAL INDEX 



"All powers be yours. He saith, 
Over my little ones; 
The power of life and death; 
The power of cloud and suns; 
The power of weal and harm 
Be yours to have and hold. 

"Lord of the skies and lands. 
Take pity on Thy dust; 
Strengthen our mortal hands 
Lest we betray Thy trust." 

— Katherine Tynan. 



THE PLAN 

'TpHIS handbook is planned to be simple enough and adequate enough for the 
education of a child by his own mother from his birth until he is well along 
in his schooldays. 

Because of its simplicity, thoroughness, and practicalness it will also be of 
the greatest usefulness to teachers who are training children of these ages. 

The best possible way to guide a mother effectually is to take up each ad- 
vancing year in turn. While children differ somewhat in the rapidity of their 
development, they pass along very much the same roadway of progress; and it is 
wise to put down things in order. 

The plan for each year is the same. It is based upon the main principle of 
the book, which is this: 

The Way to Educate Is to Build on the Interests and Capabilities 
OF the Child, and Not Upon What We Think He Ought to Learn. 

This Manual centers in the Child rather than in a Curriculum. 
So the discussion for each year is in this order: 

First. What is the child attempting this year? 

Second. What is he trying to express by his endeavors? 

Third. What will help him most? 
Each year we try to study our child, and then, according to our best vmderstand- 
ing of him, help him to help himself. 

As for the authorship, it was determined early that each year's work 
should be written by a mother who has children of the age in question and who 
has also had the training and successful experience of a teacher. So we have 
here the actual methods of real mothers who are competent, both by technical 
knowledge and practiced service, to give us guidance. They are not women of 
wealth; some of them do their own housework; all of them represent what we 
may regard as the average domestic condition, with this exception, that they 
are trained for their task. Other fathers and mothers have supplemented these 
papers, until the experience of more than forty parents has been here assembled. 
Important supplemental articles have also been especially prepared or reprinted 
by special permission of some of the leading educators of America. 

The writers of the leading articles were chosen at the suggestion of Profes- 



sor Patty Smith Hill, Director of the Department of Kindergarten Education at 
Teachers College, Columbia University, and many of the practical devices sug- 
gested have been either suggested or approved by several of the teachers in the 
well-known kindergarten of the Horace Mann School at Teachers College, co- 
workers with Miss Hill. 

The entire manuscript has been carefully read and revised by Mrs. Bertha 
Payne Newell, formerly head of the Department of Kindergarten Education at 
the University of Chicago, and by Mrs. Minnetta Sammis Leonard, formerly 
Director of the Model Kindergarten at the State Normal School, Milwaukee, 
both of whom are mothers. 

Many of the manuscripts when completed have been copied and sent to other 
mothers, to criticise and to try out the suggestions to see if they were practicable. 
Nothing has been neglected to make The Home Kindergarten Manual 
serviceable to the utmost for the average mother and in the ordinary home. 



MATERIALS REQUIRED 

The majority of the materials desirable for a little child's play and action 
are to be found in the home equipment. The old formal kindergarten "gifts" 
and "occupations" have of late been receding into the background in education, 
since they do not represent the most important play-interests of the average 
small American. The Montessori apparatus finds its equally useful counterparts 
in many of the things that are in daily use about the house. Mechanical toys 
have little place in a child's life. How much more sensible that the child should, 
in companionship with his mother, make or adapt his playthings than that he 
should be furnished with an artificial and needlessly costly imported environ- 
ment ! 

A few articles, because of their accurate measurements, or because they 
are useful for design or color, or because they have peculiar educational value, 
are recommended to be purchased, a few at a time, perhaps at Christmas, to 
supplement the home stock. 

Much more important than the materials for handwork are the stories, 
the pictures, the songs and other rhythms, and the games and occupations for 
the intellectual and spiritual awakening of the child. With these helps many 
a home has not had the foresight or the opportunity to equip itself. The pub- 
lishers have made a collection of these treasures for the mother's use. From 
a multitude of sources a rich and carefully chosen compilation has been made, 
which not even the most fortunate home could expect, by any wisdom or ex- 
penditure, to provide for itself. This collection, called the Boys and Girls 
Bookshelf, is not only supplementary to The Home Kindergarten Manual 
but constitutes in itself a standard foundation library for children. All through 

xvi K.M.— 1 



The Manual references are made to these resources as they are needed in the 
instruction and inspiration of children. 

The Manual, the pioneer in its field, is understandable and practical, and 
any mother who loves her children enough to study it will make it her constant 
and prized companion. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The thanks of the Publishers and Editors are hereby extended to all those 
who have cooperated with them to make The Manual a success. 

The Editors, in preparing the manuscript for these volumes, have endeav- 
ored, in all cases where material has been used which has previously appeared 
in print, to give credit to author, publisher, and book, and to any other to whom 
such acknowledgment was due. If they have failed to do so in any particular 
case, it has been an oversight for which the Publishers are not responsible, as 
their instructions on this point were definite, and for which the Editors express 
their regrets. Future editions will offer an opportunity for the correction, 
which will be gladly made. 



KM- 



"Play is the symbol and interpreter of liberty. . . . God 
has purposely set the beginning of the natural life in a mood 
that foreshadows the last and highest chapter of immortal 
character." — Horace Bushnell, 



A WORD TO THE MOTHER 

"l^T'HIT.E the careful study of this Manual as a textbook from beginning to 
* ^ end will be most profitable, either for the mother, the normal school 
student, or the professional teacher, the best way for the mother to make it 
immediately useful will be to turn to the year represented by the age of her 
child and read the material for that year. 

The arrangement for each year is as follows : First comes an article, writ- 
ten by the General Editor, and entitled "A Look Forward Through the Year." 
This outlines the teaching-work for the year. It tells the mother what to ex- 
pect in her child and what to do. It interprets the main Course of Study for 
the year, prepared by the teacher-mother who wrote upon that year. It shows 
the relation of the shorter articles to the principal ones and how they supple- 
ment or confirm it. This "Look Forward" is the key to the whole year, and is 
to be read carefully, no matter what else may be omitted. 

Then follow the Course of Study and the other articles. 

It is a good idea to look over the whole of the material for the year 
rapidly within the first few days, making notes of what seems especially or 
immediately important, and then to read it all again gradually and slowly. 
For this more thorough reading a "Reading Journey" is suggested in each 
"Look Forward." 

At the end of each year's material are two indexes for the year. One is 
an Index to Occupations. Every occupation, play, or employment, named in 
the articles, is listed so that the mother may find it at a glance. The other is 
an Index of Subjects. Here the suggestions are classified under such impor- 
tant headings as Art, Music, Physical Training, Nature Study, Reading, Sto- 
ries, Moral Training, etc. These indexes are for the purpose of helping the 
mother to lay her hands at once upon the method of using or satisfying a ten- 
dency or impulse she has noticed in the child. 

In each year's course there are articles connecting the present year with 
the previous one and the one that follows, so that the mother may feel the 
continuity of her child's development, and if her child is slightly backward or 
precocious may have appropriate help. These connecting articles also call to 
the mother's attention devices and methods which, though classified in a particu- 
lar year, are good for a number of years. 

The material in the rest of The Manual, after the Courses of Study year 
by year, is referred to by cross-references in the yearly work. Many of these 
articles also will be looked up by the reader, in special needs, by turning to the 
General Index at the end of the set. 



"Mighty the Wizard 
Wlio found iiie at sunrise 
Sleeping, and woke me 
And learn'd me Magic! 
Great the Master, 
And sweet the Magic." 

— Tennyson 



A WORD TO THE TEACHER 

PJ^OR the multitude of Kindergarten and primary teachers, who beheve their 
task is that of making hves and not of merely teaching school, this Manual 
has a large message. 

First, it gives them a new and better Child Study. Instead of telling 
them about the child simply as he appears to-day, it goes back to the begin- 
ning and traces the wonderful way a child develops from his babyhood. The 
only way to understand the kindergarten child's impulses and responses is to 
know the seeds from which they grew. 

Second, it gives teachers the home background. We see children too much 
as affected by schoolroom discipline. We tend to forget that the largest and 
best part of their education is given them by their mothers. This Manual 
not only shows what the better homes may do and are doing to prepare their 
children for the kindergarten, but it enables the kindergartner to work better 
with the mothers as they try to supplement the kindergarten. It is safe to 
say that in any community where this Manual is possessed by any consid- 
erable number of young mothers, it is indispensable for all the elementary 
teachers. 

Third, it gives teachers the right principles by which to do their work. 
Whether or not she be fresh from the normal school, every teacher needs to 
be reminded constantly that there is a New Education that is sound, effective, 
and becoming triumphant. It insists, as almost every page of this Manual 
reminds us, that education is not memorizing, nor mere knowing, nor burnish- 
ing the mind, but learning to use the mind. It is not something formal and 
bookish, but it is "organizing experience in terms of vital need." Contact with 
the delightful, sensible, informal methods used in The Manual will freshen 
the whole atmosphere of the teacher's daily work. It will get her away from 
"the grindstone method" of sharpening children's minds, and help her every 
day to realize that knowledge is a craft, that children learn by doing and not 
by merely being told. The Manual is based upon what is done to-day in the 
best kindergartens, and here are the latest and best ways of project-teaching. 

By the use of The Manual in the homes and kindergartens of any com- 
munity the little children of that community will live enriched and abundant 
and growing lives. 



"If we know we die not, but live on 
We should live worthier of Thy love. 
So, help Thy little ones to know and live 
That, 38 a shadow which goes reaching forth. 
Longer and longer as the sun goes down. 
The soul may stretch forth toward the great Unseen 
Until the solemn, sacred starlight comes, 
Gathering our individual shadows in its own." 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



CONTENTS 

Preliminary Papers ^^^^ 

Educating the Baby Before It is Born The Editors 3 

How I Learned to Take Care of My Baby Mrs. Madeline Darrayh Horn 5 

The Course of Training 

Looking Forward Through the Year William Byron Porbush 13 

My First Year with John Mrs. Madeline Darrayh Horn 17 

Charts 25, 26, 27 

What to Expect the First Year 

The First Year in a Baby's Life William Byron Forbush 29 

The First Three Months Mrs. Alice Corbin Sies 37 

My Baby Month by Month A/ri. Anna G. Noyes 38 

Landmarks in a Baby's Progress Mrs. Helen Y. Campbell 39 



What to Do the First Year 

Some Beginnings The Editors 

Plays and Games for the First Year Luella A. Palmer 

Finger- Plays and Other Action-Plays The Editors 



41 
45 
46 



Summary and Forecast 

Getting Acquainted with Tom and Sarah William Byron Porbush 49 

Index to Subjects facing 54 

Index to Occupations ■. facing 54 




PRELIMINARY PAPERS 



EDUCATING THE BABY BEFORE IT IS BORN 



BY 

TPIE EDITORS 



"Recurved and close lie the little feet and hands, close as in the attitude of sleep folds the head, 
the little lips arc hardly parted ; 

"The living mothcr-flcsh folds round in darkness, the mother's life is an unspoken prayer, her 
body a temple of the Holy One. 

_ "/ am amazed and troubled, my child — she zvhispers — at the thought of yon; I hardly dare to speak 
of it, you are so sacred. 

"I will keep my body pure, very pure: the sivcet air will I breathe and pure water drink; I will 
stay out in the open, hours together, for vour sake; 

"Holy thoughts will I think; I zuill brood in the thought of motherAove. I will fill myself with 
beauty; trees and running brooks shall be my companions; 

"And I ivill pray that I may become transparent — that the sun may shine and the moon, my 
beloi'cd, upon you, 

"Even before you are born." — Edward Carpenter : Towards Democracy. 



That a mother may shape her child-that-is-to-be 
for good or evil while he is yet in her body has 
been many a woman's hope or apprehension. 

Let us at once remove the dread that gathers 
about the now discredited theory of "maternal im- 
pressions." The old idea was that if the mother 
is injured or observes a deformed person or an 
object of horror, the impression made upon her 
will cause a corresponding defect in the child. 
The truth is that there is no connection between 
the mother and the child in the womb by which 
nervous impressions can be conveyed. The moth- 
er's blood even does not enter the child. It seems 
as if Nature had erected a barrier specifically 
providing for the protection of the unborn against 
such impressions. Most mothers have had dis- 
turbing experiences during their pregnancy, and 
most babies would be born "marked" if this theory 
be true. Many women do not realize until the 
sixth or eighth week that they are pregnant, and 
as the form of the child is established at the 
beginning of the third month, disturbing events 
have little time in which to effect impressions. 

This is not to say that the mother cannot harm 
the coming baby. If a woman neglects the plain 
rules of health, or goes through her pregnancy 
repining and lamenting, she may rob her child 



of the nutrition he needs for his best development. 
The puny, wailing baby is, however, usually not 
"marked" even by "nervousness"; the nervous- 
ness is due to lack of nourishment when the baby 
was beginning its growth. 

Mother Cannot Will Good Gifts upon her 
Baby 

On the other hand, we may be equally positive 
in declaring that no endowment — physical, mental, 
or moral — can be transmitted by will-power. The 
brown-eyed mother cannot "will" blue eyes for 
her baby. The mother of olden times who "filled 
her house with choice flowers and beautiful im- 
ages of color and marble, listened often to the 
discoursing of sweet music, and walked often in 
the gardens, seeking from Nature and from books 
inspiration and lofty thought," did not thereby 
confer taste or talent upon her unborn child. The 
calm truth of science, stated by Guyer, is that 
"in spite of all our painstaking efforts toward 
self-improvement, we cannot add one jot or tittle 
to the native ability of our children." And if 
that seem discouraging and fatalistic, we may gain 
some cheer by the complementary truth that 
"while we are denied advancement through the 
efforts of the flesh, we are also largely protected 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



from our misfortunes and follies," since mutila- 
tions and personally acquired bad habits are not 
inheritable by our offspring. 

What then is the use of a mother's efforts at 
self-culture during the pre-natal months? In what 
sense, if any, may we justify our title, "Educa- 
ting the Baby Before it is Born?" 

She May Prepare Laid-up Treasures 

There are a number of answers. They all 
center in this fact, that while we can not com- 
municate with the child himself, everything that 
we do may indeed benefit him. To educate the 
child yet to be born we educate the mother who 
is to bear him. 

We have spoken of the expectant mother's 
physical life. Her attention to food and diges- 
tion, to exercise out of doors, to pleasant dis- 
tractions that induce a happy view and take the 
pressure off the overworked nerves, will directly 
assist a successful bringing to birth. Her at- 
titude is everything. If she will remember that 
pregnancy is not a malady, that old wives' stories 
are mostly fables, and that abnormal experiences 
are unusual, if in short she will keep her mind 
from ingrowing, she will greet her baby on the 
day of his birth with the courage and poise and 
triumph that will actually assist his digestion, 
quiet his nerves, and make his entrance into life 
an agreeable event. Developing character her- 
self, she will from the start develop his. The 
fond mother who thought her caressing strokes 
over the surface of the birth-chamber awoke an 
affectionate thrill within may have been mis- 
taken, for the womb is a chamber of peace, but 
there is no doubt her anticipating love had its 
answer on that day when the first blast of outer 
air, the first contact with the noisy world, the 
first rude touches of assisting hands, awoke the 
protesting voice and stimulated the ill-directed 
rigors of his tiny wrath. Love and tenderness 
and even a sense of humor do good to a baby 
from the day of his arrival. 

The expectant mother who, as Nietzsche said, 
"suppress an angry word as though it might dis- 
till a drop of evil into the life-chalice of the be- 
loved unknown" are wise, for how can they fill 
the chalice with sweetness unless they have won 
self-control by practice? Truly, every expectant 
mother lives, as another has said, "under God's 
spotlight." 

Effectual Methods of Making the Future 

And what of the mothers who hang up fine pic- 
tures in their rooms, and live with good music, 
and read much in the masters during their days 



of waiting? Are they foolish or misguided? 
Not at all. These shall be the mothers of princes. 

"One must give up much when one becomes a 
mother." This is true. It too often means that 
the young woman gives up her music, her art, her 
pretty clothes, and the care of her person, when it 
should mean only that she gives up her foolish 
leisure, her petty vices, her wasteful reading. 

The day of the baby's birth is not too early to 
begin his moral training. Before he is half a 
year old, wonders may be wrought in his educa- 
tion. It is not too much to say that the voca- 
tional guidance of a man ought to be commenced 
before he comes to birth. 

Music played softly in the room where rests 
an unborn child will not "mark" him to become a 
Mendelssohn or a MacDowell, but a baby is sensi- 
tive to rhythms before he is seven weeks old, and 
how shall he have this advantage if his mother 
has "given up her music?" Sculpture and art 
gazed upon by expectant mothers will not produce 
an impression of aesthetics upon the embryo, but 
the baby who learns to love form before he is six 
months old, and who perceives color soon after he 
is a yearling, will not be in the atmosphere of 
beauty unless his mother has prepared beauty for 
him in her heart and in his home in advance. 
And while the fond mother must be slow to ce- 
ment even the growing youth into his niche for 
life, yet the quiet days before he comes are not 
too early to catch a vision of the great tasks of 
life and to begin to plan that his shall be no nar- 
row, unready, or ignoble lot. 

An expectant mother's dreams are holy, and 
they are effectual. "Not in utter nakedness, but 
trailing clouds of glory" come "from God who is 
our home" babies who are conceived in desire and 
borne in longing and preparation. Even before 
birth the mother may consecrate herself to be- 
come not only the first, but the best teacher her 
child shall ever know. She may recognize herself 
as the transmitter to him, not only of a sweet, 
untainted body, but of the wisdom and beauty of 
all times. She must understand that by surround- 
ing herself with the best life has to give — and 
life's best is not wholly bought with gold — she 
may bring wise men to his cradle and lift him 
up under the benison of the Star. 



USEFUL BOOKS FOR EXPECTANT 

MOTHERS 

SlEmons, J. Morris, M.D. The Prospective 
Mother. D. Appleton and Company, New York. 

ScHARLiEB, M.'\ry. The Welfare of the Expec- 
tant Mother. Funk and Wagnalls, New York. 



HOW 1 LEARNED TO TAKE CARE OF MY BABY 



MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN 



Katharine had just dropped in for one of the 
occasional chats we squeezed in between our 
numerous home duties. When I tell you that she 
was the mother of charming Clo, aged eight 
months, and I of Bobby and John, aged six 
months and two and one-half years respectively, 
you will guess why our conversations never 
lagged. We compared notes on the "gooing" of 
Clo and Bobby ; Katharine told of Clo's new- 
found sport of crawling backward and I described 
John's large amount of vitality, with its disregard 
of furniture and shoes. 

"Do you remember," asked Katharine, "how 
yellow John was when he was a week old?" 

''Indeed I do. How worried I was I When I 
told my fears to the doctor, she said, 'Just wait.' 
Sure enough, in a few weeks the yellow color 
was gone, and in its place appeared the lovely 
pink and white complexion all stories about babies 
had led me to believe belonged to them. When 
Bobby arrived with the same color-scheme, I did 
not waste a minute in worry. The doctor did 
ask me to notify her if the jaundice remained too 
long." 

"Clo escaped having the jaundice," said Kath- 
arine, "but she was red, as red as a beet. How- 
ever, this soon disappeared, and in its place came 
a beautiful shell pink that filled me with delight 
every time I looked at her." 

Katharine continued: 

"Did I ever tell you what Clo's father said when 
he first saw her?" 

"No, you didn't." 

"He said, 'Did we go to all this trouble for 
such a homely little bundle ? Even her head is 
crooked !' But like the unattractive complexions, 
the misshapen head soon disappeared." 

Then I confessed. 

"Do you know, I imagined a new-born baby 
was like a child at least six months old. I thought 
my first baby was abnormal because there 
seemed so little he could do. He didn't seem to 
hear; his eyes often wandered in different direc- 
tions; he had no muscular control. His chief 
stock in trade were instincts he had brought with 
him into this world. He could cry — I should say 
he could cry ! He could sneeze, cough, grasp ob- 
jects, form his mouth for food, feel warmth and 
cold, but cry best of all. Not until I learned 



that the human baby, unlike the animal baby, has 
a long period of infancy in which fathers and 
mothers must care for it, so it can develop to 
a high degree, was I satisfied that John was 
normal." 

Plans for the Future 

Katharine's visit took me back to the days of 
John's youth — his youngest youth — when he was 
but an hour old. His presence had inspired me 
to pledge again the future his father and I had 
planned for him: — 

All the health should be his that loving care 
and expert medical attention could give. 

We guaranteed life's essentials — food, clothing, 
shelter, with as much music and art as we could 
afford. 

We promised an education with special super- 
vision of his reading and experiences. Yes, we 
had chosen his college ! 

Twofold companionship should be his — the 
companionship of adults and children. Of course, 
I was the most eagerly sought companion among 
the grown-ups. I had already forsaken crochet- 
ing and embroidering for the reading of good 
books, that I might prove worthy of such com- 
panionship. 

We promised him a home where teamwork 
prompted by love should be the constant ex- 
ample. 

My Education Begins: John's Bath 

As you see, like most inexperienced fathers and 
mothers, we had thought of John in terms of an 
adult who more or less approximated our own 
experiences, forgetting, or, rather, not knowing, 
those tiny but essential steps that bring a child 
safely through babyhood. I did not remain in 
ignorance long. My education began in the hos- 
pital when I watched my nurse give John his 
first bath. 

My nurse said: "Giving this daily bath looks 
difficult and tiresome, but it helps a great deal in 
guaranteeing baby's future health. It keeps the 
pores of his skin open by removing waste ; it 
keeps the skin in condition, especially where parts 
of the body touch; it makes him comfortable, 
hence good-natured ; it begins the habit of a daily 
bath ; and it gives you a daily opportunity to look 



THE HOME- KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



him over carefully to see that there are no signs 
of a coming illness." 

The nurse wore her usual spic-and-span and 
"good-looking" uniform. Her look of cleanliness 
and competence in her regulation suit inspired 
me to model my house-dresses on a similar plan. 
I was not surprised when she said: 

"Wear wash-dresses when caring for your baby. 
They can be kept clean." 

She also said that if I had a cold. I should pre- 
vent my baby's getting it by wearing a cheese- 
cloth mask over the lower part of my face. 

She took care of John's eyes, ears, nostrils, 
mouth, and washed his face, hands, and head, and 
cut his finger and toe nails before undressing him. 

A summary of what she told me about caring 
for the eyes is as follows : 

Cleanse a baby's eyes, when they are slightly in- 
flamed or sore, with a solution of boric acid. Dis- 
solve one teaspoonful of boric acid powder in a 
cup of lukewarm water to make the solution. The 
boric acid can easily be put into the eye with an 
eye-dropper. Never irritate the eyes by rubbing 
them. Flush them so the discharge runs to the 
outer corner of the eye, where it can be caught 
with absorbent cotton. This cleansing should be 
done often. Always burn the bits of cotton used 
and cleanse the hands. If the discharge is only 
in one eye, let the child lie on that side. Take 
every precaution to prevent the infection spread- 
ing to the well eye. If the discharge is profuse, 
a physician must be called to care for it. This 
sort of thing is very contagious, so the child 
should be kept away from other people and chil- 
dren, and the mother must be fastidious in the 
care of her hands and clothes. 

She carefully made cotton swabs by entirely 
covering the blunt end of a toothpick with ab- 
sorbent cotton. She dipped these in vaseline 
(liquid alboline would do, she said) and gently 
cleansed the nostrils. Fresh swabs were used for 
each nostril to prevent carrying germs from one 
to the other. 

There seemed to be bits of yellow wax just 
inside the ear canal. She said that if this were 
left there was apt to be irritation. She used cot- 
ton swabs moistened with water for cleansing 
the ears. She turned these swabs gently in the 
outer part of the ear. never pushing them into the 
ear canal or pulling the external ear. 

She cared for the mouth by washing the space 
between the gums and cheeks with a large swab 
moistened with boiled water. She said that when 
John's teeth came to wash his mouth twice a day 
with a soft brush or cotton swabs and a solution 
of bicarbonate of soda (one teaspoonful to a cup 
of water). 



She washed the head very gently to avoid any 
injury to the soft spot on top which she called 
the fontanel. 

She examined his toe and finger nails carefully. 
She said that if they were allowed to become too 
long they were likely to grow back into the flesh ; 
and that finger nails scratched the baby's skin 
before he learned how to keep his hands from his 
face. She cut the nails straight across instead of 
following the curve of the finger or toe. 

Danger Signals 

She then told me how to treat heat-rash. She 
said: "In the Summer watch for it carefully. 
If rash does appear // ivill probably menu Joint 
is dressed too warm. Cover the skin with a soft 
linen slip between it and his shirt. Bathe him 
with a solution of bicarbonate of soda (one tea- 
spoonful to eight ounces of water) or pat his 
skin with a paste made of it. Be sure he gets 
plenty of boiled water to drink." 

"What other danger signals should I watch 
for?" I asked. 

"A sore buttock should always be cared for 
immediately. It may be caused by a number of 
things : wet diapers left on too long when the 
urine is too concentrated; irritating stools; harsh 
material in diapers; diapers not carefully rinsed, 
after being washed with strong soap; or any con- 
dition that causes redness elsewhere." 

"How do I care for such a condition?" I asked. 

"Wash baby with oil instead of water. Place 
a piece of old linen covered with cold cream or 
vaseline between the diaper and skin. Remove 
his diapers as soon as they are wet. Give plenty 
of boiled water between feedings. If your treat- 
ment does not effect a cure, you should consult 
your physician." 

Equipment for a Baby's Bath 

She bathed John on an ordinary table which 
had been padded until soft. A six-inch rail sur- 
rounded the table to prevent any falls. The 
nurse said that she could bathe the baby so much 
faster and with much more assurance for baby's 
safety than when he was tumbling and squirm- 
ing on her lap. 

Her list of articles for the bath seemed so com- 
plete and helpful that before going home I jotted 
them down on paper. I shall pass the list on to 
you : 

1. The table. 

2. Two sets of wash cloths. 

One set was made of surgeon's lint, eight 
inches square; another of two thicknesses of fine 
bleached cheesecloth. One set was used on the 
face ; the other on the buttocks. I think her rea- 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



son for using two materials was to prevent using 
the same wash-rag on the buttocks as on other 
parts of the body. She warned me to shun the 
harsh wash-cloths adults use. 

When I returned home and made my wash- 
cloths, I found I had no surgeon's lint. Since I 
did not want to buy any. I tore up an old cheese- 
cloth garment into eight-inch squares. To dis- 
tinguish my face-cloths from the others, I 
marked them with a pink mark in each corner. 

3. Bath-thermometer. 

(A mother's elbow may be a fairly accurate 
substitute.) 

4. Soft linen towels for face and body. She 
said old linen was excellent for this purpose. 

5. Soft bath-towels. She said never to use a 
towel so rough that it would irritate the skin. 

6. Soft blanket, one and one-half yards square. 
A lovely one can be purchased, or Viyella flan- 
nel of two thicknesses makes an excellent one. 
However, old materials about the house (an old 
blanket, for instance) are all right, and save 
buying while materials are expensive. 

7. Absorbent cotton. 

She kept this clean in a container with a hole 
in the top. 

8. Toothpicks. 

She kept these in a covered container. 

9. Castile soap and a soap dish. 

She said any good white soap would do, but 
castile was preferable. 

10. Safety pins. 

These were stuck on a pincushion nailed by a 
tape above the table. Since the hospital days, I 
have found it a time-saving device to keep safety 
pins in every room where the baby goes. 

11. Talcum powder, unscented. 

12. Flexible tube of yellow vaseline or cold 
cream. 

13. A soft baby-brush and comb. 

14. A tub. 

She said the rubber ones are excellent, but very 
expensive. A towel can cover the bottom and 
sides of a metal one so it will not touch the baby. 

15. A small basin or bowl for the cold splash. 

16. A small paper bag to hold waste cotton and 
toothpicks. 

17. Two covered pails — one for soiled clothing 
and one for diapers. 

18. A receptacle holding oil. 

19. Blunt scissors to cut toe and finger nails. 

20. Scales. 

She explained that weighing the baby regularly 
was the surest indicator the mother had of his 
condition. Be sure to use scales that indicate the 
weight accurately. She recommended a type that 
sits firmly on the table and that has a screw that 



can be turned backward from point zero, tlie 
weight of the basket (which holds the baby) and 
of the clothing, so the nude weight can be ob- 
tained even after the baby is dressed. Weighing 
the baby while dressed protects him from cold and 
drafts. As I watched the nurse, I was sure her 
efficiency grew out of much practice and having 
everything ready before she began. 

My Own Bath-Table 

When I returned home from the hospital, I 
worked out a bath-table similar to the nurse's 
with material I could find about the house. Here 
is a description of the result : 

I owned and used one of those old-fashioned 
washstands which have a lowered top to hold the 
bowl and pitcher. This provided my railing. By 
removing the top and supporting it at the side 
with brackets, I made the shelf to hold my tub 
of water. The two-inch board around the lid 
prevented any sliding about of the tub of water. 
The narrow shelf above held vaseline, cold cream, 
boric-acid solution, toothpicks, receptacle for hold- 
ing cotton, etc. The rack for the baby's clothes 
was placed high to avoid splashings. A pincush- 
ion was well filled with pins of various sizes. 
The scissors were hung to one side so that there 
was no danger of their falling on the baby. 

I put a shelf in the middle of the lower part of 
the vvashstand to make room to hold John's 
clothes, his wash-cloths, and towels. 

An oilcloth under the top protected the floor 
and padding from water. 

The weight-chart was close at hand. 

Although I spent hours getting this ready, I 
soon saved several times that amount of time. 

The Bath Itself 

How skillfully the nurse held the baby! She 
soaped John from head to foot before putting him 
in the tub. She held him in a sitting position in 
the tub by slipping her left arm and hand under 
his armpits from the right side. In this way 
she could hold him securely and have the right 
hand free. Any accident must be prevented, as 
that would establish a fear of the daily bath. 
She washed him gently, going from the neck 
downward. She kept him in the water only a 
minute or two. 

After the cleansing bath, she wrung out a wash- 
cloth in cold water and gave John a cold splash 
over his chest, back, and under his arms. 

She then lifted him to the padded portion of 
the table and patted him dry with a soft towel. 
She was very careful to get him entirely dry, 
especially in folds of the skin. 

Then followed the oil-bath. I have found since 



8 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

that a continued use of this keeps the skin in ghe Begins to Establish John's Habits 

excellent condition. Vaseline may also be used. 

She carefully rubbed the skin-surfaces which .^"^ ^^y- '°*'^'''' "'^ "'^ °^ "^^ hospital stay, I 

touch, to prevent irritation. She recommended said: 

the oil rather than powder, as the latter is likely '^""«' >'°" ^° '^e same thmg to John at the 

to form irritating rolls.* s^'"'^ '™^ ^^'^h day." 

She gently pushed back the foreskin and re- "^_es,mdeed," she said, "and you will thank 

moved any deposit of white material which might "*! i,""" ". "l^"^ ^""^^- , 

become irritating. She applied a little vaseline, /Does it help a great deal? 

and brought the prepuce back into position. If J"^' imagine your not being sure you could 

the prepuce seemed tight, she said to notify a «"^* ^'^en your meal-time came ! Imagine never 

physician being sure you would get your night's sleep or a 

To bathe a girl, she said, separate the labia, "^P ' '^'°"'' stomach would rebel, you would 

wash gently with cotton balls and tepid water, henpeck your husband, and no doubt you might 

and use a downward motion. Never rub. If ^^'^^ ^^ tempted to spank poor, helpless little 

there is a tendency toward redness, use a small -^°hn here, when all that was needed was a little 

amount of vaseline between the labia, but never regularity m your household." 

powder. She continued: "After caring for many babies 

Nieht Sponee ^ ^"^ convinced no one thing, besides proper food, 

guarantees the health of a normal baby to the 

Just before sleepy time at night she sponged extent of regularity of habit." 
him off with as little handling as possible. She 

also cleansed his nostrils again. I have kept this The Nurse's Three-Hour Schedulef 
up, because I found that dirt always collected 

in the nostrils during the day. This cleansing ^^'^ '°''^ '"'^ '''^'' '""^ ^'^e first three months or 

seemed to insure better breathing at night and ^°' •^^'"'^ °^ '^e physical habits was about all that 

hence better rest for him ^^^* needed. At this time babies sleep hours each 

So much equipment and so many little things ^^^^ ^"'^ *'^^" ^'^^'^'^ '""^' he kept quiet— not 

to watch discouraged me. played with— except for the mother's patting and 

"I can never do it without hurting him," I londling. 

told the nurse. Here is her schedule for the first three months: 

She was most comforting. "Every mother feels 3-OOA. m., early morning feeding, 

that way," she said, "and every mother is mis- o.ooa. m., feeding, 

tress of the art by the end of the first month." ^-3° a. m.. morning bath followed by the 

This is really true 9.00 a.m. feeding and drink of water — luke- 
warm. 

Excellent Advice my Nurse Gave Me 9oo a. m. to 12.00 m., morning nap. 

i,r, T 1^, • • , . 12.00 noon, feeding. 

When I was able to sit up in bed once more. 3.00 p. m., feeding - nap between. Drink of 

my nurse kept my mind busy by giving me the water 

benefit of her experience with many babies 6.00 p. m., feeding-nap between. Put to bed 

Would you like to share her wisdom too? f^j. jjj„]^(. 

"What," I asked my nurse, "is my safest guide 9.00 pm. feeding 
in determining the state of John's health?" 

"The weight-chart," she replied, without a bit Changes Made by End of the Sixth Month 

r, •,,.,' T 1 J .1 . .1 ■ -I . . While I was still in the hospital, my nurse had 

Right there I resolved that this weight-chart ^j.i.i. t -wt, .. r 

, -1 u ij u r . J t u suggested that later on I might change to a four- 

and pencil should be fastened securely above my , t, j 1 t i-j -.i .1. r ft 

,,, ^,, J ,, ,,, ^1. 1 hour schedule. I did, with the following as a 

bath-table so I would not be tempted to neglect , . "^ 

recording John's weight. , ' ... . ^ .. 

rr, -^ °, J , J , ^, . , ^ 0.00 A. M. came his earlv morning feeding. 

ihe nurse suggested I could record the weight . ,, ,■• t i j 1 • j ' j- j • . 

• ,, • f , • ° ° After this, I changed his damp diaper and night- 

in this fashion: '^ . . , ^ ,^ , . " 

gown, put on a pair of hose, and a kimono or 

^"''' Weight sacque, if the room were chilly. I also washed 

^/1^/17 (Birth) 7 lbs. 4 oz. i,is face and hands. 

9/13/17 7 lbs. 8 oz. a c^ t i, r ^ ui j j t ^ i.- 

9/17/17 .. 7 lbs 12 oz After John was comfortably dressed, I set him 

9/24/17 .'.' ." .' .' .' .' .' '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. .8 lbs.' 3 oz! 

. . • t It may be that your baby will need to be fed at first on 

Cecilia I'arwell, in Volume I., page 207, of "The Child a two-hour schedule; kt your physician advise you on this 

Welfare Manual," tells exactly how to give this oil-bath. point. — .'. E. B. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



up in his crib for his early morning play. Before 
he could sit alone I propped him up with pillows. 
I kept a box of playthings especially for this 
time. From time to time I varied the contents 
of the box. Such things as a red harness ring, 
a small box, some spools and blocks at this time 
were typical contents. A crocheted red ball 
hung from his crib; later, I hung a blue ball. 
a yellow one, and so on. John soon learned to 
look forward to this time with much pleasure. 
His little arms would stretch out eagerly as soon 
as the box came in sight. This playtime gave 
me an opportunity to prepare breakfast. If John 
fell asleep, which he usually did, I was careful 
to cover him immediately to prevent his taking 
cold. 

We happened to have a small wicker chair in 
the household and it proved invaluable. It had a 
soft cushion seat, and, by adding pads to the sides, 
we made it comfortable throughout. To prevent 
his falling' out, we slipped ordinary sleigh-bell 
reins across the front. These bells were a source 
of much noise to us and much merriment to John. 
He soon learned that he could make the chair 
rock by rocking his body back and forth. Until 
he learned to crawl, this rock was his favorite 
means of getting exercise. From about 8.30 to 
9.30 A. M. John would sit in this chair, intermit- 
tently rocking, shaking his rattle, or watching 
me move about the room. 

9.30 — morning bath. 

10.00 — came the second morning feeding. 

10.00 to i.oo p. M. — he took his nap outdoors, 
unless the weather was below zero, or rainy. 
Under such conditions, he slept in a room with 
the windows wide open. This sleep lasted for 
three hours or more.* This long nap gave me 
time to wash the dishes, get luncheon, and do the 
luncheon dishes. It also gave John's father and 
myself one meal during which we could chat 
undisturbed. Usually, I managed a wee nap, 
too. 

2.00 p. M. — came his first afternoon feeding, 
followed by activity of some sort after his long 
nap. At this time, I massaged his limbs and 
played with him for about thirty minutes. I often 
called this his "kicking" time. My play was not 
of a strenuous sort. I would allow him to kick 
his feet against my hands ; I would pat-a-cake his 
hands; talk to him; say "Mother Goose Rhymes," 
and so on. 

5.30 — came his evening sponge-bath and the 
putting on of night clothes. 

6.00 P. M. — came a feeding and his going to 
bed. I did not rock him, but put him immediately 



* Cecilia Farwell, in Volume I., page 187. of "The Child 
Welfare Manual," tells how necessary this sleep is. 



in his crib. All lights were put out. H^p went to 
sleep willingly, leaving a quiet evening for his 
father and mother. During the day 1 was care- 
ful that he had plenty of boiled water to drink. 

Play with his Father 

I found it difficult to find a place in John's 
schedule for play with his father, as his father 
was away during John's waking hours. It took 
very little discussion as to whether John should 
remain up after his six o'clock feeding to play 
with his father, to decide that such a procedure 
would be entirely selfish. Consequently, until 
John was quite a bit older, his father had to play 
wath him on Sundays, holidays, and those rare 
occasions when he happened to be home during 
John's waking hours. 

John Puts On his "Finery" 

I was quite disappointed to learn that night- 
gowns were the only necessary outside clothing 
for the first month. I had looked forward to the 
moment when John's first appearance in real 
dress-up clothes should make the nurses exclaim, 
"How cute he is !" 

The nurse was quite as proud of John as I, so 
one day she dressed him in his best bib and tucker 
and put him on display — at a time when John 
was always awake, of course. 

How the Nurse Dressed John Easily 

She had many little tricks she used in dress- 
ing John so he would not get weary in the proc- 
ess. She eliminated the putting on of one gar- 
ment by slipping the petticoat inside the dress, 
then putting them on together. 

She warned me against the strain of putting on 
clothes which had plackets that were too short. 
Ten inches is a good length. 

She explained the advantage of the buttoned 
shoulder of the Gertrude petticoat. If the petti- 
coat becomes soiled, it can be removed by un- 
buttoning at the shoulders and slipping off over 
the feet without removing the dress. In the same 
way, a clean petticoat can be put on. 

She said that removing clothing over the feet 
did away with that troublesome moment when the 
baby loudly objects to having his head wrapped 
in clothing. 

"Keep safety pins," she said, "in every room. 
Tack a pincushion full of them over your bath- 
table, so the baby will not be left exposed while 
you chase around hunting pins." 

She showed me two wire frames — one for dry- 
ing shirts and one for drying hose — which 



10 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



avoided that shrinkage that often makes the put- 
ting on of the woolen garments troublesome. 

Amount of Clothing Needed 

I asked my nurse to check over my layette to 
see if I had missed any clothing John would 
need or if I had included superfluous articles. 

The following is a liberal allowance for a baby 
the first year, according to her report: 

1. Three shirts. One the baby is wearing, an- 
other kept clean for emergencies, and one drying 
on the shirt rack. Wool, wool and cotton, or 
wool and silk are suitable materials. She said 
to buy size two, as size one was soon outgrown. 
Use long sleeves and high neck for winter wear, 
and cotton shirts for summer. Medium weight 
shirts can be purchased with a tab on the front, to 
which the diaper can be pinned. 

2. Three pairs of stockings — also of wool, wool 
and silk, or wool and cotton. Use cotton hose or 
none at all for hot days in Summer. She sug- 
gested that I sew a loop at the top of the hose to 
run the safety pin through, to hold the stockings 
in place without tearing. 

3. Flannel bands. Buy a yard of flannel for 
this purpose and leave them for your nurse to 



* Many medical authorities state that it is desirable to 
substitute a hand with shoulder straps for the straight band 
as soon as the navel has healed. This may be made to slip 
over the head, or it may be open in the back; ill the latter 
case each side of the back should be extended with a grad- 
ually narrowing width until it will reach around the body 



tear, as she needs them, into bands five or six 
inches wide. These bands are wrapped about a 
baby until the umbilical cord falls off. They are 
needed only a few weeks. For this reason, my 
nurse said that the old prac- 
tice of buying knitted bands 
was a needless expense.* 

4. Knitted bootees for win- 
ter wear, preferably those 
which are long, and fit the 
curve of the knee. Short 
bootees, with a string about 
the ankle to hold them on, 
are likely to be tied too 
tightly and thus retard the 
blood circulation. If a moth- 
er has short bootees, she can 
fasten them on with small 
safety pins. 

5. Three flannel skirts. The 
Gertrude pattern, six months' 
size, is a good one. Tapes 
or buttons are used at the 
back and shoulders. Several 
thicknesses of material at the shoulders where 
fastened prevents early tearing of the material. 
Length, twenty-two inches. 

of the bottom edge of the front; this is used for pinning 
the diaper in i>lace. There are three important things to 
remember about a baby's band: (1) It must never hind, as 
the abdominal muscles of a healthy infant need little sup- 
port, except possibly in the first few weeks of life, but 
rather they need free play in order that they may be 




A GERTRUDE 
PETTICO.\T 



THE OPEN-B.'\CK B.\Nn 

BEFORE SEWING 
THE SHOULDER SEAMS 





PROMT 



to* the center of the front — the bottom edge straight and the 
upper cut on the slant. There should be a slit cut just back 
of the armhole on the right hand side, so that when the 
band is put on, the left hack can be drawn smoothly through 
it, and thus make a crossing without wrinkles. Little linen 
tapes should be sewed to the ends of the back and tied in 
the front. A tab should he made and sewed at the center 



strengthened in the natural way by the slight exercise the 
baby can give them. (2) It must never wrinkle, or the 
haby will be unconifortai)le. (3) The width from top to 
bottom must neither l)e loo much nor too little; if too much 
the movement of the legs will force it to wrinkle, and if 
too little the lower edge will cut into the abdomen. 

—7. E. B. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



II 



6. Three Gertrude petticoats of a white ma- 
terial. I used these only for dress-up occasions. 
If a mother wanted to use them daily, she would 
need at least half a dozen. These should be 
twenty-two inches in length also. 

7. Six outing-flannel nightgowns. These are 
twenty-seven inches in length, to give warmth to 
bare feet at night. Avoid nightgowns with 
draw-strings at the feet, as they may restrict the 
baby's movements and make him uncomfortable. 

Describing a baby's nightgown as being warm, 
reminds me of my friend without babies who 
asked : "Why don't you make the nightgowns 
of soft, lovely nainsook instead of that coarse 
heavy outing flannel ?" 

8. Two kimonos. 

9. Several warm sacques — flannel or knitted. 
These help to keep a baby at an even tempera- 
ture when one lives in a drafty old house that 
is always too warm or too cold. 

10. Six white dresses. Size, six months. A 
baby so soon outgrows the very tiny baby clothes 
that it seems a waste of time, money, and energy 
to make a small set and then a larger one in six 
months. Tucks can be taken at the shoulder of 
the six-months' dresses until the baby grows into 
them. 

These dresses should be twenty-two inches 
long. The warmth a baljy is supposed to get 
from very long clothes is not needed with warm 
stockings and bootees. Long clothes restrict the 
movement of the legs. 

Make the wristbands of the dresses six inches 
wide, and the neckbands twelve. 

A dress with kimono sleeves has the advantage 
of being easily ironed. However, after John 
was eight months old, I found his lively getting 
about soon tore these sleeves, while the set-in 
sleeves remained intact. 

Buttons and tapes should be used to fasten the 
slips, but never pins. Can you imagine how cross 
you would be if a well-meaning but all-powerful 
person made you lie on a pin just because you 
couldn't move or tell her what was the matter? 

11. Two sleeping bags.* These bags insure a 
protected baby at night and during out-of-door 
naps, no matter how strenuously he kicks or how 
cold the weather. 

Eiderdown is a lovely material for them. I 
felt that I could not afford to buy new material 
for these bags, so I made one by sewing my two 
baby blankets together, and another by cutting 
an old eiderdown cape into shape. 

Two bags are necessary to insure freshness if 
the baby wears them at night. 

* Cecilia Farwell, in Volume I., page 187. of "The Child 
Welfare Manual," tells how to make these bags. 

K.N.— 3 



Such a bag, with sleeves and flaps to cover the 
hands, a hood attached, and a flap that buttons 
over the feet, makes an excellent coat. 

12. Out-of-door garments consist of long draw- 
ers of cotton or wool, or leggings, sweater, cap, 
mittens, or the bag just mentioned. 

13. Winter and summer clothing. A typical 
winter outfit for indoors consists of a wool shirt, 
wool hose, flannel petticoat, cotton dress, long 
bootees, cotton diaper. The kimono or sacque 
furnishes extra warmth when needed. 

14. Diapers. Three dozen 18 by 36 inches; 
and two dozen 22 by 44 inches. 

Bulky materials should be avoided for diapers. 
Large bunches of cloth constantly between the 
legs tend to deform them. Cotton birdseye is a 
good material. 

The old way of folding the diaper leaves an 
uncomfortable lump between the legs, keeps the 
legs bent out and pulls at the front. A better 
way is to fold the diaper and lap over the cor- 
ners like a pair of drawers, pinning the upper 
edges to each other and the vest and the lower 
together and to the stockings. In this way the 
diapers may conveniently be let down at the back 
at tlie stool. 

15. Summer clothing will vary with the section 
of the country in which one happens to live. In 
the warm southern States much less clothing will 
be needed throughout the Summer, while in our 
northern States there may be only a few very 
warm days. 

When these very warm days come, a diaper and 
cotton dress are usually enough. Sometimes a 
cotton shirt is needed. If there is evidence of 
stomach trouble, the flannel band should be used 
until the baby is well. 

In choosing the baby's clothing, mothers must 
use that good old standby, common sense, and 
never follow a rule blindly. If the baby's hands 
and feet are warm, his stools normal, if he looks 
bright and happy, you can be pretty sure he has 
on about the correct amount of clothing. 

The question of clothing is tied up with the 
child's physical development. He must have 
clothes that are attractive but do not bind him. 
When John was a year old, I made him a half 
dozen pairs of dark blue chambray overalls, com- 
ing just below the knee, that could be put on as 
needed. 

I often wonder if the custom of dressing chil- 
dren up in the afternoon, and insisting that they 
keep clean, is a wise one. It seems so foreign 
to the natural tendencies of a child to remain 
quiet enough to keep as clean as mothers would 
like. Why not bathe them, and put on a clean 
pair of overalls, and let them go on with the same 



12 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



play activities? Dressing children up and ask- 
ing them to keep clean every afternoon always 
seemed to me the imposition of an adult attitude 
on the poor child. There are times when he can 
be dressed up and be expected to keep clean. 
Such times are at Sunday school, parties, and the 
like. If you have nothing around your house 
with which a child can get dirty, your equipment 
is lacking. Where is your sand pile, water to 
play with, and grass to roll on? 

Shall I Have My Baby Circumcised? 

When John was two days old, my nurse asked: 
"Will you have John circumcised while you are 
still in the hospital?" 

I confessed I had not thought of it at all. 

"Should I ?" 

While a baby is small the operation is very easy. 
If you have it done while your nurse is still with 
you, the penis will heal before she leaves. 

"Do you think it necessary?" I asked. 

"It might be that your baby could get along 
without circumcision. On the other hand, your 
baby might be one of the number who fret for 
months before anyone discovers that a tight fore- 
skin is making all the trouble. The custom is 
growing among the doctors to circumcise while 
the child is still in the hospital, and thus obliter- 
ate all possibility of future uncomfortable days." 



Defects Noticed During the First Year 

We all know the appearance of a bow-legged 
child. Often this can be prevented by not allow- 
ing the child to walk until his legs are strong 
enough. If the initiative is left to a normal child, 
there is no danger ; but we often get restless and 
try to make a child walk before he is ready to 
do so. 

If there are indications of pains in the joints, a 
mother should see a doctor immediately, to avoid 
lameness of any kind. 

Swinging a child by hands or feet is unforgiv- 
able. Their little legs and arms can not stand 
the strain. A child showing signs of having a 
club foot should be taken to the physician im- 
mediately. It seems that such things are more 
easily corrected when the child is small. 

Falls, of course, must be guarded against. 
Usually a child falls more easily than an adult, 
but once in a while falls are fatal, and therefore 
we do not want to take chances on any falls. I 
put gates to my porch and at the bottom and top 
of my stairs. Then, when John was two years 
old, having no fence around the yard, I had a 
large space fenced in for his play-yard. It seems 
that, in these days of the automobile and other 
modern inventions, we mothers must be very care- 
ful in keeping our children away from danger. 



"His flesh is angels' flesh, all alive. All day, hetween his 
three or four sleeps, he coos like a pigeon-house, sputters and 
spurs and puts on his faces of importance; and when he 
fasts, the little Pharisee fails not to sound his trumpet before 
him. By lamplight he delights in shadows on the wall; by 
daylight, in yellow and scarlet. Carry liim outdoors — he is 
overpowered by the light and by the extent of natural objects, 
and is silent. Then presently begins the use of his fingers, 
and he studies power, the lesson of his race." 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



THE COURSE OF TRAINING 




LOOKING FORWARD THROUGH THE YEAR 



I 



To All Child-Lovers: 

The keynote of The Home Kindergarten Manual is in this sentence 
from WilHam Herbert Perry Faunce, president of Brown University : 

"There are some ways in which we can play on an instrument and some ways in 
which we can not. Instead of planning the instrument, we had better learn the stops.'' 

I believe that statement to be so important that I have put it on the title-page of 
two books that I have written, and if I did not expect to repeat it to you more 
than once I would put it on the title-page of this one. 

You, or any mother, can learn to play on the beautiful instrument of a little 
child's life, and evoke lovely music, if you understand the instrument on which 
you are trying to play. 

It is your child you need to study, not some elaborate work on pedagogy. 
To me, the most wonderful fact in education is that you can trust the child's 
own impulses and responses. These teach you what to teach him. 

And what is this mysterious Child Study? Simply this. All there is to a 
child's life is a series of situations and a series of responses to those situations. 
If you will carefully notice how your child responds to each situation, from 
these responses you will discover what are the best situations that you can 
arrange for him. In other words, your principal work is to select your child's 
sitnations. or experiences. This year, and every year, you must give him the 
most wisely selected experiences, and he will largely educate himself. You 
don't have to educate him. You don't even have to furnish him motive-power. 
Your task is not to give his boat an engine, but to clear away the barnacles. 

This simple preface suggests the first thing I would like to have you do, 
namely: First, get yourself a note-book. 

A diary or a small blank-book of any kind is enough. You will notice that 
this is the first thing Mrs. Horn, our teacher for this year, recommends. Mrs. 
Sies, too, who will take us at the third year, makes the same suggestion, and 
part of her own first-year record is reprinted in this year's studies. 

13 



14 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

What you put down this year may lie short and it may not seem important, 
but it will do three things at least: It will enable you to compare your baby 
with Mrs. Horn's baby; it will probably suggest some condition or action some 
day that will be very useful, and — best of all — it will start this most necessary 
habit, of trying to understand your child before you teach him. 

Second, if you are an expectant mother, I suggest that you read first 
"Educating the Baby Before it is Born." 

Third. I would ask every mother to read Mrs. Horn's preliminary article, 
"How I Learned to Take Care of My Baby." While she was at work upon her 
main article, she prepared, from her own experience, this paper. It is not a 
treatise on children's diseases nor an account of how to meet emergencies, but 
just a straightforward story of what a mother needs to remember in order to 
keep her baby happy and well. 

Fourth, I suggest that you read next Mrs. Horn's "My First Year with 
John." What you will like about Mrs. Horn's article is that, just as soon as 
she has made a point, she follows it up with a "Practical Suggestion," show- 
ing how she used that observation in training her baby. At the close of her 
article is a "Chart of Child Study and Child Training for the First Year," based 
on what she has been saying, which brings out, item by item, in tabulated form, 
the point I made at the beginning: that every response a baby makes by mood 
or motion suggests how you can arrange some experience that will enable him 
to educate himself. 

As you read the article just mentioned I would mark in the margins of 
the pages whatever strikes your attention as good for further thought. And I 
would do some of that further thinking right now. With her suggestions in 
your mind, you may begin at once to be a good practicing mother. 

You are, I hope, going to use Mrs. Horn's suggestions and the accom- 
panying Chart every day. But you are now ready for more thorough reading 
and study. 

Fifth. I would read the rest of the material for this year — the three sec- 
tions : "What to Expect This Year," "What to Do This Year," and "Summary 
and Forecast." Then prepare your notebook for keeping a record of your baby's 
progress. Now back to the Manual; take up "The First Year of a Baby's Life," 
"The First Three Months," and "My Baby Month by Month" in sections, choos- 
ing from each that which corresponds to the age of your baby, and as he grows 
older study carefully the next divisions. 

Sixth, in the same manner study "My First Year with John," "Some Begin- 
nings," and their companion articles. To help you I have prepared: 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



IS 



A READING JOURNEY 
For Things to Do with the Babv 
'My First Year zvitli John" "Some Beginnings" 



Companion Articles 



I. Physical Development 

II. Nerves 

III. Sense-Life 

IV. Curiosity 
V. Sociability 

VI. Imitation 

VII. Emotions 

VIII. Habits 

IX. Memory 

X. Speech 

XI. Reasoning 

XII. Discipline 

XIII. Summary 



II. Assisting Body-Control "How I Learned to Take 

Care of My Baby" 



I. Helping the Senses 

V. The Baby's Sociability 

III. The Emotional Life 

IV. Habit-Forming 



"Plays and Games" 



"Finger-Plays and Other 
Action-Plays" 



VI. The Baby's Outlook 



"Getting Acquainted with 
Tom and Sarah" 



Finally, I would, toward the close of the first year in your child's life, read 
again the article, "Getting Acquainted with Tom and Sarah." This is just an 
informal summary, in story-form, of what has been learned and done during 
the year, with a slight forecast to the second year. 

You will note, at the end of this year's material, two Indexes. These are 
for your convenience in helping you to find instantly any subject that has been 
treated or any occupation that has been recommended during the year. 

William Byron Forbush. 



"The teacher can not begin his work by educating the child, 
for the simple reason that he has no clue to the operation. 
He must begin by observing the child, and then, when he 
knows his material, he can with some hope of success go to 
work." — C. Hanford Henderson, 



MY FIRST YEAR WITH JOHN 

Or, Watching a Baby Grow 

BY 

MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN 



Of all the interesting problems I have worked 
on, the most interesting one has been the watch- 
ing of John's development. It seemed that every 
day something new was evident. And I found 
that, after reading what had already been dis- 
covered about the way a child grows, the more 
interesting and intelligible my problem became to 
me. I saw that it saved much pain to know how 
other mothers had met similar problems before 
I had mine to meet with John. This was es- 
pecially true with the physical side of his life, 
because such problems were often perplexing. 

I found the records I attempted to keep of 
John's development helpful. These records con- 
sisted principally of the ordinary happenings set 
down with patience and accuracy. I tried to make 
a complete picture of John's development, but I 
think I attempted too much. It would be better 
to make a more careful study of one trait ; mem- 
ory, for instance, or imagination. 

There are a few records that all of us should 
keep. The weight-chart is one. This is necessary 
because it is the best check we have on the baby's 
health. 

An accurate record should be kept of all acci- 
dents and sicknesses. Such records may explain 
peculiar tendencies in later childhood that would 
otherwise remain unexplainable. 

One habit that helped me in keeping such 
records was to have pencil and paper always 
handy. 

While watching John grow I realized the truth 
in Fiske's "Meaning of Infancy." Fiske said, 
you remember, that the reason the animal is 
born so near to his perfection is because he has 
not far to go, and he can make most of the jour- 
ney himself. But the baby, who is born so much 
more helpless than the animals, has a great 
journey to take, and must have time for a long 
and slow development. I saw how much more 
essential is the place of a human mother than that 
of an animal mother. Having learned the many 
essentials for living, she must protect and teach 



the little life that he in his turn may know and 
enjoy all that she is now knowing and enjoying. 

I. His Physical Development 

It seemed that from the very beginning John 
tended to make movements of some sort. At first 
he moved his arms in a jerky way, so that he 
was quite likely to give his face a disagreeable 
"hitch." The third day he knocked the pan of 
water off the table where the nurse was bathing 
him. Of course, such movements as these had no 
conscious effort behind them. Such movements 
continued throughout both his first and second 
years.* 

He learned in time to turn from back to side, 
from side to back, and later to roll over on his 
stomach : he wiggled his head in all sorts of ways, 
he tried to lift his head up. and finally, when his 
back grew strong, he could lift himself to a sit- 
ting position. At first he had to be propped up 
when sitting alone and even then could not always 
keep his balance. But finally the pillow was re- 
moved and John could sit alone. He worked his 
fingers and toes with many fantastic movements, 
even accomplishing the feat of putting his toes in 
his mouth. When bright and interesting play- 
things appeared, he forgot his fingers and toes in 
the joys of new toys. 

His little fingers seemed to develop wonder- 
fully. He could pick up pins, bits of paper, and 
quite to my consternation, much enjoyed putting 
them in his mouth. It took some time for him to 
find the location of his mouth, but when this was 
accomplished, all sorts of objects found their way 
unerringly to that destination. 

After he learned to sit alone, he learned to bal- 
ance by physical feats that would be hard for me 
to accomplish. Sitting flat on the floor he would 
bend his head over until it touched his toes. He 
did not do this once but many times. He could 



* How different this is irom yourself! Your activities are 
for a purpose; the baby*s pleasure is in the activity itself. 



17 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



balance himself with his hands and feet on the 
floor, bend his head down, and gaze backward 
between his legs. 

Practical Suggestions 

He liked to be "roughed." His father and I 
would roll him over and over, much to his delight. 

I tried to incite crawling later by making him 
lie on his stomach and holding my hands for a 
push-board for his feet. I had been told that 
this would help John to crawl. He ignored my 
teaching by sliding around on his buttocks. This 
t3'pe of crawling lasted a couple of months and 
then he began the usual way of crawling on his 
hands and feet. After he learned this he seemed 
to need no incentive to crawl, but was cross when 
his crawling was interfered with. 

It seemed that I had a twofold mission in this 
crawling. I had to see that he was dressed prop- 
erly and that he had a safe place in which to 
crawl, that is, that there were no pins on the floor. 
I found the kiddy-coop helpful. When I had not 
had time to go over the floor, I could put him in 
his kiddy-coop with its canvas bottom and feel 
that he was safe. 

By the end of the first year he could easily 
stand, holding to an object, and in the same way 
take a few steps. 

II. I am Careful of John's Nerves 

John's nervous system seemed very sensitive 
to extremes of any kind, be it a noise, a jerk, or 
anything unusual. By the end of his first year I 
had learned a number of things that I should 
never do if I wanted him to be a calm and happy 
baby. Luckily, I had been told that the hearty 
laugh that followed tickling a baby was not 
normal, so John escaped that agony. In fact, 
abnormal laughing for any reason is not good. 
Neither is the laughing spell which is too long. 

One day I tore a long strip of muslin which 
made John cry lustily. His cry came from the 
unusual strain on the nerves of the ear. 

I soon found out that John's sleeping time 
should not be disturbed, even to show him off to 
admiring friends, if I wished to keep him well. 

I found that too much handling, even in his 
waking hours, made him irritable. We have all 
seen parents throwing their children high in the 
air, or boisterously jumping them on their knees. 
This seems to be too strenuous for the baby only 
a year old. 

Practical Suggestion 

I found one general rule that seemed good to 
follow the first year. This is it: to let John lead 



as quiet a life as possible and only to give him 
what might seem excessive playtime when he took 
the initiative in wanting it himself. 

This rule remained excellent for the second 
year. He could do many more things during his 
second year and his initiative was also greater. 
By following his lead I did not overtax his nerves 
and I still provided a sufficient variety of play for 
his mental development. 

III. John's Sense-Life Develops 

The sense-development seemtd very important 
during the first and second years. What could 
John learn if he couldn't learn to see, or to hear, 
or to touch, or to smell, or to taste? It seemed 
that one of my chief purposes was to see that John 
was given the fullest opportunity to exercise his 
senses. 

It was clear from the beginning that no one 
sense developed alone. If John learned to know 
his red ball by sight, he also learned to know it by 
touch. If he learned to recognize the sound of 
the piano, he also learned to know the instrument 
when he saw it. 

At birth it was apparent that the organs of sight 
were imperfect, and that they would have to de- 
velop before John could see things accurately. At 
birth his eyes were very sensitive to light. In 
fact, I am still careful to protect them from 
strong sunlight. At first his eye-movements were 
poorly coordinated. One eye might look in while 
the other looked out. Sometimes a tendency this 
way persists until the second year. If it does, 
an eye-physician should be consulted. 

His range of vision was limited at first. After 
he could control the turning of his head his range 
of vision became much larger. 

At four months old he seemed searching for 
a rattle that had dropped out of sight beside him. 
I was sure that it was the rattle that he was 
searching for, because of the look of satisfaction 
when I restored it to him. This shows the help of 
the advent of memory in his sense-development. 

Practical Suggestion 

Development of the Sense of Sight. — During 
the early months, John had all he could do to 
learn to see the faces about him and the rooms 
in which he lived. Of course, he never learned 
to see them perfectly, but for that matter, who of 
us sees all that is in a room, even when we stand 
in the center with the conscious effort of seeing 
all? 

Toward the end of the first year I began to 
give him a few materials to see. He had balls of 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



19 



different colors, a brass teapot, a copper teapot, 
etc. 

Development of the Sense of Touch. — The 
sense of touch seemed one of the senses John first 
used. Of course, the sense of touch aided him 
greatly in finding his food when he was just a few 
tla>s old. Throughout the first year, one of his 
chief joys was the handling of all sorts of ob- 
jects. It seemed to be a sure way he had of com- 
ing to know a new thing. 

As with many babies, every object John got 
hold of was put into his mouth. This has been 
explained, by saying that the sense of touch in the 
mouth and lips is higlily developed, and there- 
fore is more satisfying to a child than merely 
feeling the object with the hands. 

Playthings for the Sense of Touch. — The ma- 
terials I used at the end of the first year and 
during the second year did not vary much. Of 
course, I had to be careful always to avoid 
sharp objects, pointed ones, breakable ones, those 
painted, or those that were too heavy for him to 
handle. As a tiny baby he could handle only 
rattles, rings of various sorts, soft dolls or stuffed 
animals, balls, and the like. 

A trip to the toy-stores suggests that there are 
toys galore for children, but close inspection 
shows that there are reasons why most of them 
should be discarded. Often they are so cheap 
that a young baby soon breaks them. Sometimes 
they have small particles in them that might es- 
cape and be swallowed by a child. Examples of 
this type are : celluloid rattles filled with pebbles 
or bullets; glass eyes in dolls or animals; whistles 
in rubber dolls ; pins in toys. Others have sharp 
edges that hurt a baby ; still others are made with 
machinery that pinches. I remember a doll rid- 
ing on an automobile that was given to John that 
was always pinching his fingers. There are tops 
made with springs that get loose and catch in the 
baby's hands. Many toys are colored with paint 
that can be sucked off, and hard toys with which 
the baby can hit himself should be avoided. 

These are the commercial toys I found best 
suited to John during his first year : a rattle, of the 
right kind; soft stuffed animals with no loose 
parts (embroidered eyes can be used in place of 
beads) ; a soft "cuddly" doll; a soft ball (I found 
a tennis ball pleased John) ; a teddy bear; and a 
hard red ring that I bought at a harness shop. 

The toys that he liked best were the ordinary 
articles I found about the house. For instance, 
from the kitchen : spoons, the tea-strainer, pans, 
pot-lids, an old bell, muffin-pans and other home 
things, such as a white ivory powder-box, a 
bright hairpin-box witli something inside to rattle, 
and a large bolt. 



The following are the materials I gave him as 
lie grew older: a sand-pile, a box of stones (too 
large to be swallowed), a box of shells (also 
large ones), cloth of different textures, fur, velvet, 
silk, linen, cotton, wool ; wood to handle and 
pound ; large pieces of cloth to fold and put away; 
old garters to fasten and unfasten; something to 
button and unbutton ; shoes to lace. 

John's Hearing Develops. — Authorities disagree 
as to whether a baby can hear at birth or not. 
This is not especially important. We mothers 
know that we must avoid loud sounds throughout 
babyhood. The loud slamming of a door or the 
ripping of a piece of cloth would make John cry. 
As these unusual sounds did irritate him I avoided 
them as much as possible. 

I tried to let him hear sweet voices and much 
music. Some mothers have said that music 
quieted their babies. Although John loved the 
music very much, when he did cry it was for 
something like his bottle or a change of position, 
and no matter how lovely the melody, it would 
not suffice. 

At three months he would sway back and forth 
in time to the music. At a year old his brother 
Bobby would dance a funny little dance, hopping 
up and down in time to the music. They both 
loved to sing, even in the first year. Their sing- 
ing was the making of queer, funny noises with- 
out any tune or time, but which gave them much 
satisfaction.* 

IV. John is Curious About Many Things 

There seemed to be nothing that John saw that 
he was not curious about. He wanted to handle 
everything. He not only handled things with his 
hands, but also felt them with his lips and tongue. 
It was quite essential that John handled only 
clean objects. Curiosity has been defined as a 
tendency to find out the qualities of an object 
through its manipulation, either physically or 
mentally. I saw, of course, a baby's curiositv 
is entirely physical. 

Although this is a very aggravating tendency 
when, for instance, the magazines are dragged 
off the magazine-stand again and again, it is a 
most necessary tendency. It makes the baby de- 
sire to learn about everything. Where would 
any of us get if we were not first imbued with a 
desire to learn? 

Practical Suggestion 

The satisfying of this curiosity is one of the 
chief methods of play during the first year. Any 



* For a list of tbe songs and pieces used by Mrs. Horn, 
see page 62. 



20 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



baby can spend many minutes exploring the pots I remember, with much chagrin, the times I have 
and pans or examining objects selected by mother yelled at John or handled him roughly, all because 
and collected in the tray of the high-chair. of my own nerves. 



V. John Likes People 

Mothers have claimed very early days for the 
first smile — a sign of pleasure with another's 
company. It seemed to me that John smiled by 
the second month. After the first smile any chirp- 
ing noise, wag of the head, in fact any pleasing 
movement, brought forth many smiles. By the 
third month John had laughed out loud. (It 
might be wise to note that the nervous laugh 
following tickling is not the contented laugh of 
sociability.) 

By the end of the first year there were many 
evidences that John liked company. He would 
crawl to the person in the room to be taken up. 
He seemed well satisfied when played with, and 
showed it by funny "gooing" sounds. He would 
begin to try to imitate sounds older people made, 
showing his desire to hold up his end of the con- 
versation. 

I seemed to be the first and most-sought-for of 
John's companions. This is easily explained. It 
was I who satisfied most of his primitive longings: 
I fed him, I kept him clean, I kept him warm, and 
I played with him. The people he liked to be 
with next were other members of the family. His 
liking for strangers was not evident in the first 
year. I have heard other mothers say that their 
babies went quite readily to strangers. All moth- 
ers seem to agree that the second year shows a 
change of attitude in the fact that their children 
like to run away to strange places. 

Practical Suggestions 

Satisfying this longing for company can be car- 
ried so far that it is detrimental to both mother 
and baby. The baby, if given too much atten- 
tion, decides that the mother's sole purpose in life 
is to play with him. And if she starts to wash the 
dishes, for instance, there immediately follows a 
yell. Consequently, for her own good, the mother 
must not permit herself to become a slave to the 
child's desire for companionship. Too much 
companionship hurts the baby because he does 
not get the opportunity to learn to find his own 
amusements and to enjoy himself. We all know 
people who are imhappy if left alone for a few 
hours. They seem to lack any means within 
themselves for entertainment. 

There are a few things to avoid in the home 
if one desires that the social atmosphere for the 
children be a good one. We mothers must avoid 
loud yelling of commands, and crude shovings. 



■VI. John Begins to Imitate 

The ability to imitate is to all of us an impor- 
tant means of learning. For the baby it seems to 
be the chief way in which he learns. During the 
latter part of the first year John attempted to imi- 
tate sounds and movements that attracted his at- 
tention. Through imitation we taught him to wave 
"by-by," to throw kisses, to smell flowers, to brush 
his hair, to wash his face, to attempt to say words, 
etc. Even moods were imitated. If he fell and 
I was quick enough to laugh before he began to 
cry. although his face might be puckered ready 
for a weep, he would change it into a smile. 
While I saw a few instances in which he imitated 
a mood, most of his imitations were confined to 
the physical kind. 

It is quite evident that if we are going to en- 
courage imitation we should have good models. 

Practical Suggestions 

I found a few rules that seemed sensible even 
for the first year: (i) I found my model should 
always be the same, to avoid confusing John. In 
teaching him to smell a flower, I always went 
through the same motions. I had a flower at 
hand, said, "Smell," and then held it to John's 
nose. (2) If I was consciously trying to teach 
him to imitate some act, I let only a small interval 
of time elapse between periods of teaching him. 
When I wanted to teach him "Pat-a-cake," I did 
not teach him one day and then let a month elapse 
before trying again. His memory would not be 
strong enough to hold the image for so long a 
time. I taught him "Pat-a-cake" several times 
daily until he had learned it. The learning gave 
him such joy that he seemed proud to be able to 
respond with clapping his hands whenever I said 
"Pat-a-cake." (3) For an older child, I would 
add, do not tire him. As for the one-year-old, 
he simply stops when he gets tired and can not be 
induced to go on. This gives him means within 
himself of protection against his own strenuous 
activity. (4) I always rewarded his attempts to 
imitate, if only with a smile or word of approval. 
(5) When John began to imitate large movements 
like walking, I gave him plenty of space in which 
to move about. 

Suggestion aids imitation greatly. A mother 
can so influence a one-year-old that certain physi- 
cal positions in seeing certain objects will always 
evoke certain responses. For instance, being laid 
in his bed at night meant it was time for John 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



21 



to go to asleep. Being put in his kiddy-coop 
meant that he was to play there by himself. Be- 
ing put on his chair meant that he was to have his 
stool. 

VII. John's Emotional Life 

Sounds of anger come very early. When John 
was three months old he was sick and conse- 
quently received a great deal of attention. When 
this attention was withdrawn upon his recovery 
he showed real signs of anger. Again, when he 
wanted his bottle and was given a plaything in- 
stead he threw his plaything on the floor and was 
as angry as he could be. During this first year 
and through his second year these fits of temper 
passed quickly and were of no harm to anyone 
but himself, but in the third year, when his anger 
took the form of pushing over his baby brother, it 
had to be curbed with a strong hand. 

Although John as a baby was funny to look at 
when he grew red with anger and threw some- 
thing with all his might, still I could think of no 
adult who would consciously incite such anger for 
the fun of seeing John get mad. Our negative 
emotions are hard enough to control without un- 
necessarily making them a customary thing. 

John SIiozvs Signs of Being Afraid. — There 
seem to be a few things of which every baby 
is afraid. P.sychologists have enumerated such 
things, as large dark moving objects, the feeling 
of fur, loud noises, etc. The two instances I had 
of John's showing signs of fear were these : one 
was when a thin smoke began to fill the sitting- 
room, coming from something which was burning 
in the kitchen. When John saw the smoke com- 
ing through the door he cried and ran to my arms. 
This fear came from no knowledge of a past ex- 
perience. As it seemed to be innate within the 
child I called it an instinctive fear. John's other 
sign of fear was when he felt that he was going 
to fall. Unlike the smoke-experience, fear did 
not arise the first time this occurred, but one fall 
off the bed was sufficient to arouse fear whenever 
that sensation seemed imminent. 

Bobby soon learned to be afraid of his older 
brother. His brother could not come near him 
without Bobby's yelling to some older person to 
come and protect him. This warning cry always 
reminded me of the funny noise the hen gives her 
chickens when there is a hawk nearby. 

I felt that fears of these kinds were quite 
necessary to the babies' welfare. It was their 
way of keeping them from being hurt. 

I tried to avoid exciting fear unnecessarily. It 
is an unpleasant emotion for adults. And how 
much worse must be its reaction on a little baby. 



VIII. Forming Habits the First Year 

Did you ever wonder how we would manage 
to go through an.y day and reach the evening 
smiling if we had to stop and think how to take 
each step? And did you ever consider what in 
our mental make-up relieves- us of consciously 
planning these details? Doubtless you have, and 
know before I say it, that it is habit. Habit, de- 
fined quite simply, is the ability, gained from past 
experiences, to perform an act without the aid of 
conscious effort. What toiling, cumbersome crea- 
tures we would be without it ! 

Habits' during the first year are mainly of the 
physical sort and are almost wholly dependent on 
the mother for their development. It is she who 
establishes them or prevents -them, and insists 
upon the regularity of the good ones. 

Practical Suggestions 

I found during the first year of John's life that 
his habits were chiefly tied up with four processes, 
namely : 

1. Sleeping 

2. Eating 

3. Cleanliness 

4. Habits of elimination. 

The following rules I laid down in regard to 
John's habits, and followed unless something 
beyond my control interfered. This seldom 
happened. 

I. His naps in the daytime, and his sleeping 
hours at night, were at the same time each day. If 
his afternoon nap were encroaching on his feed- 
ing time, I gently woke him up. By not allowing 
him to sleep longer than usual, he was ready for 
his bedtime at night. This procedure gave me 
a few hours I could count on as mine in which to 
have a time of relaxation from the baby. It 
would surprise, you to know how soon John be- 
came a regular clock. 
■ 2. His food was given at the same time each 
day without a variance of fifteen minutes. John 
soon proved to be a clock in this respect too. 
When feeding time came, he began to show signs 
of restlessness. Discontentment with this rigid 
regularity will come only if the baby is not getting 
enough to eat. This, of course, is an immediate 
problem for your physician. 

Habits as to what to eat can be established in 
the first year. If a mother never begins the cus- 
tom of feeding a baby bits from the table, he will 
not expect it. It certainly is not good for any 
baby's diet. If sugar is used not at all or very 
scantily, a mother will never have to refuse the 
insistent demands of her child for more sugar. 



22 



THE ho:me kindergarten manual 



3. I gave John a bath and put on clean cloth- 
ing daily. Once in a great while a day came when 
Jolm must miss his bath. It was always a rest- 
less day. I was glad it was, because it indicated 
that John was forming a habit of wishing to feel 
clean each day, and that was exactly what I 
wanted. 

4. I put John on his stool the same time each 
day, for these reasons; This regularity helped 
prevent constipation; I saved myself much dis- 
agreeable labor through the use of his chair. 
Having a stated time to do this permitted no 
lapse of memory on my part, and I could not say 
at the end of a day, "I can't remember whether 
baby had a stool to-day or not." 

Tlutmb-Sucking. — The first year of a baby's 
life is the time to stop this very harmful habit. 
Watching my two babies has convinced me of 
this. \\'itli John I noticed that this habit was be- 
coming stronger instead of disappearing at the 
end of the first year. When at that time I began 
to break the habit, I found the mistake I had 
made. / had not rcaliced that to permit a habit to 
ronfiniie for several months, even when the habit 
luas not very noticeable, meant that that habit 
zvould be z'cry difficult to break. I put thumb- 
stalls on the guilty fingers, tried covering the 
hand with a whole mitten, put on adhesive tape, 
talked, threatened, and to this day — John is now 
two and a half — his fingers go to his mouth as he 
goes to sleep. I learned my lesson. When John's 
brother Bob, at the age of three months, showed 
a tendency to put his fingers in his mouth. I 
immediately put on thumb-stalls. It took three 
months to break him completely, but it was time 
well spent. 

A woman who had had five children asked why 
I worried over John's sucking his thumb. "All 
my children," said she, "sucked their thumbs until 
they were three ; then I broke them easily by 
talking to them." Don't let any mother of the 
past generation convince you of the wisdom or 
success of such a procedure. We, as mothers, 
wish to give our children the best possible physi- 
cal equipment. Who of us likes to see a big child 
running about with his thumb in his mouth? It 
intimates tliat somebody's mother was careless or 
ignorant. 

If this habit has already been established, NOW 
is the time to break it. It will mean a crying baby 
for a few days, and a worn-out mother, but it 
will pay in the end by giving added comfort to ' 
both. 

As for pacifiers — they are dirty, inelegant, un- 
necessary, and harmful. The continual use of 
them deforms the mouth; also teeth, nose, and 
throat may be affected. A baby does not even 



desire them unless the haliit is allowed to be 
formed. 

A child often sucks his thumb because he has 
nothing else to do. Therefore, it devolves on 
us mothers to see that we do not leave our babies 
after they need mental development without some- 
thing to satisfy that need. If I wished John to 
sit in his cab happily for a time, I gave him some- 
thing with which to play. If I wanted him to 
play in his kiddy-coop, I gave him things with 
which to play. A bright copper coffee-pot in- 
variably excited his senses of sight and touch, and 
even of hearing, when he hit it with his hand, and 
left no desire for thumb-sucking. 

Holding the Baby. — Another habit that I found 
should be avoided the first year, was holding John 
too much. Monday was always more or less a 
disappointment to John because mother could not 
hold him as much as the family had on Sunday. 
John liked to be where I was. But I found that 
John was more comfortable, and I could work 
better, by giving him playthings to play with on 
the floor. More physical development can be at- 
tained through movements on the floor than in the 
more or less cramped position on a mother's lap. 

Rocking a baby to sleep is the same type of 
habit. I never began this with John, so never 
had to break the habit. The time after supper or 
dinner, as you happen to call it in your house- 
hold, really belongs to the husband who has been 
away all day. The baby has had his share of 
the mother's company and at this time comes the 
father's turn. A mother's arms are not the most 
comfortable cradle. What could be a sweeter 
way to put baby to sleep than to make him all 
comfortable and clean and then lay him in a bed 
equally fresh and sweet. 

The second year brings its own problems, its 
own habit-formations. So let's establish the good 
habits the first year, that we may at least begin 
the second year with a good start. 

IX. Can John Remember During His First 
Year? 

During the first month John came to recognize 
the feel of the nipple of his bottle as it touched 
his lips. He soon knew my face and the way I 
held him ; and in a few months knew all the 
faces of our immediate household. He showed 
delight in going to his parents; this was replaced 
by reluctance when strangers wanted to take him. 
\\'hen taken to explore a new room, he evidenced 
unfamiliarity by staring about. When eight 
months old, he visited a strange home, and, of 
course, had a strange crib for his bed. He pro- 
tested against the crib, room, and people with loud 
shrieks. Only my holding him and reassuring 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



23 



him with my voice until he fel! asleep comforted 
him. 

Psychologists seem to disagree as to just what 
memory is. But as I watched John during his 
first year, there was no doubt in my mind as to the 
kind of memory he possessed at that time. His 
memory consisted in being familiar with all sorts 
of objects that he had a chance to taste, feel, 
smell, hear, etc. I know we would all agree that 
. such a thought as this would never occur to him : 
"Oh, yes ! I remember seeing an apple yesterday 
for the first time !" However, by becoming fami- 
liar with all the homely objects about the house 
— faces, clocks, beds, dogs, chairs, cat, rattle— he 
was storing up memory-images that would be 
used constantly. By his third year, he could con- 
sciously remember a ferry-boat he had ridden on 
only once when twenty months old. When seeing 
a picture of a ferry-boat at the age of three he 
said, "Daddy and I rode on a boat like that once." 

I don't believe there is anything I could or 
should have done to help John's memory that first 
year. So many new and wonderful things just 
naturally forced themselves into his notice daily 
that he had quite all he could manage. 

X. We are Anxious for John to Begin to 
Talk 

At about eight months old John began an in- 
cessant babbling which seemed to prophesy that 
he would soon talk. We were very anxious to 
have him reach the stage where he could say a 
few words. We did not realize that we could 
really have helped John at this time to learn to 
talk. We just listened and soon, to our dismay, 
the babbling almost ceased and real talking did 
not come till John was almost two years old. 
Howeyer, the average baby begins to talk some 
time near the age of a year and a half. 

Practical Suggestions 

When the babbling stage of talking came to 
Bobby I outlined a few methods by which I could 
help him. 

First, I found that I could get the baby to as- 
sociate a few of his babbling sounds with real 
objects. There seem to be a few words that all 
babies say at the very first which have no mean- 
ing to them but which are really words to the 
adult. The two most common of these words are 
"dada" and "by-by." By saying "daddy" and 
pointing to Bobby's father each time he said 
"dada" his word "dada" soon had meaning for 
him and soon developed into a queer pronuncia- 
tion of "daddy." And by always using the word 
"by-by" in connection with the departure of a 



person and the waving of a hand, this word came 
to have meaning to him. 

Second, one of the best things a mother can do 
toward the end of a first year is to give the child 
meanings of words even though he c'an not pro- 
nounce them. I found I could do this with both 
John and Bobby by pointing to an object and 
clearly saying its name. It seems easier for a 
child to acquire nouns at first. 

Third, I found that the easiest words for John 
to acquire at first were very short words and 
words with a repetition of syllables, as "mamma," 
"daddy," "by-by." 

Fourth, I decided it was best to avoid trying 
to teach the word unless the object about which 
we were talking were near at hand. It seemed 
too much to expect John to recall the word by 
using his memory. 

XI. The Basis of Reasoning Begins with 
John 

The ability to reason, as we adults think of it. 
did not seem to exist in John's first year. The 
building up of concepts is essential to reasoning;* 
and many associations must be made before the 
concepts can be built up. A few words defining 
what we mean by "concept" will make sure that 
we are all talking about the same thing. We have 
a "concept" of anything when we can place it in 
its class, because we know the characteristics that 
define that special thing. The concept "man" to 
us adults means a certain shaped object with 
arms, legs, head, etc., while to the baby the con- 
cept "man" means only what his father looks like 
to him. As more men come within the baby's 
experience he gradually has the same concept for 
"man" that an adult has. 

It seemed to me that John was beginning to 
make the associations leading up to correct con- 
cepts during his first year. He was comparing 
my face with that of his grandmother, with that 
of the maid, and with those of the neighbors that 
he saw quite often. Such comparisons were the 
means of his forming a correct concept of the 
word "face." 

.\nother example is this : John must some day 
learn the concept "doll." "Doll" at first, to John, 
meant his rag-doll. It was soft, it was a nice size 
to hold in his arms, and it was something he liked 
to take to bed with him. The coming of his- rub- 
ber doll enlarged his experience. It looked some- 



• In other words, John did not come fitted out with a 
lot of pre-conceived or pre-experienced notions of his own. 
.All he has had have been a lot of vague experiences, and 
he is making his notions out of his experiences, building 
them together, as Mrs. Horn suggests, until they become 
sound, tested ideas of facts. 



24 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



what like his rag-doll, it was soft, but it was not 
so big and it made a squeaking noise when 
squeezed. Later on, he acquired another doll that 
also had eyes and ears and nose, was a little bit 
soft, but woi-e clothes that could be taken off and 
put on. So John's concept for the word "doll" 
grew and grew over a period of years. Although 
the building up of the concept took a number 
of years, still we see that the 'beginning of his 
associations began as soon as he found out about 
his rag-doll. 

Practical Suggestion 

I found that I must be careful not to form as- 
sociations that I did not want to continue to exist. 
For instance, I found that it would not be fair to 
John to form the association of taking him up 
when he cried, and then expecting him not to cry 
when I could not take him up. 

XIL John Seems to Have a Mind of His 
Own 

One instance occurred after John had been sick 
a few days. Because of his illness he had been 
permitted to rest on my lap at times he was not 
ordinarily allowed to do so. When the time 
came again to use his crib, he voiced his objec- 
tions by loud and prolonged yelling. 

At another time, an irregularity in the house- 
hold permitted his staying up an hour later than 
usual. The next night, he insisted his bedtime to 
be at least this one hour later, and would not have 
objected to making it several hours later. His 
health demanded that he be put to bed at his 
usual hour. It was done, but with kicking and 
weeping. 

As I watched such instances with John, certain 
characteristics seemed obvious during this first 
year. They were as follows : 

1. The things on which John set his heart to the 
extent of weeping were most often things that in- 
volved the companionship of someone, usually 
myself, who satisfied his small needs. 

2. It seemed to me that he was easily diverted. 
His one crying spell, when he wanted to be held, 
seemed quite enough to convince him that it could 
not be, so thereafter he appeared quite happy to 
be put immediately in his crib. 

I tried to make one ruling for John and myself 
in regard to such manifestations. The dis- 
cipline was truly as much mine as John's. For 
instance, it would have been much easier for me 
to continue holding John that one hour he spent 
crying so hard than to ignore him. My rule- was 
this : To allow John to have the things he wanted 
unless they interfered with his own well-being or 
that of some one in the family. When a time 



came that he wanted what he should not have, I 
just let him "cry it out." 

I might say that I have found it helpful to think 
of our expression of "will power" as the ability to 
fix one's attention on a goal for a period of time. 
Considering it in this way, I always thought of a 
so-called "will power" as an asset to John, rather 
than something to be "broken" or dreaded — the 
attitude I have heard grandmothers take. 

It seemed to me that the first thing to remem- 
ber when John was a tiny baby was that, if I 
played my part of the game fair and square, there 
would be no need of discipline. That is, if I 
never rocked John to sleep, I would never have to 
punish him if he were put to bed unrocked. How- 
ever, when he began to crawl, and consequently 
began to meet situations that were new to him, I 
found that there was need of discipline of some 
sort. When he found the magazines under the 
library table, he wanted to pull them off and tear 
them to pieces. I tried saying, "No, no," but it 
seemed to mean nothing to John. I solved the 
problem by giving his hands a slight stinging tap 
and by also saying, "No, no." When the words 
"No, no" came to mean. "You must not touch it," 
to John, the saying of the words without the tap 
was sufficient to cause him to leave the thing 
alone, unless it held some striking attraction for 
him. 

Practical Suggestions 

I followed the principle of always making some- 
thing disagreeable follow the thing John should 
not do and something pleasant follow the doing 
of something of which I approved. 

I saw no time in the first year in which such a 
thing as a whipping could be justified. How could 
anyone expect a small baby to know enough to do 
anything so wrong that it would deserve a whip- 
ping? We can be sure that, when a baby is 
whipped, the one taking care of him either has 
an ungovernable temper, or knows nothing about 
the development of a baby. 

Xni. John's Stock-in-Trade at the End of 
the First Year 

The development of John from his first year 
into his second year was so gradual that only by 
marking the calendar could I definitely say that 
his first year had ended, and that lys second year 
had begun. However, I could look back to John's 
first month and see that he had made wonderful 
progress. At first, he seemed a little bundle of 
impulses, reflexes, and instincts. Very soon, sen- 
sations reached his brain and he began to perceive 
the life about him. With these first sensations 
and perceptions began his memory. At first, his 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 25 

memory was only the mark left by these sensa- in all conceivable ways, making himself strong 

tions on his brain. Later, he began to form real for walking and handling new objects. He was 

memory-images. Having memory to use, greatly uttering queer babbling sounds in preparation for 

facilitated his mental development. Now he could his talking of the second year. I found this year 

compare his past and present experiences, of the time to form good physical habits. I found it 

course, very crudely. I saw him use imitation a time when he was forming many associations. 

a great deal as a means to learn. He was most I found him all ready and eager to begin the 

active. He moved his hands and legs and body second year. * 

* The main landmarks of an average baby's development are usually somewhat as follows: 

First three months Silence, sleep and semi-darkness, with reflexive movements when awake 

Third to fifth month Sense-play alone 

From the fifth month Susceptible to gentle play with others 

From the sixth month Active handling-period 

From the ninth month Combination of arm and leg-movements, imitation of others, gestures, understanding of a few 

words, endeavors to creep. 
Toward the twelfth month.. More varied play, creeping, climbing and perhaps walking, ability to pick out objects in 
pictures. — IV. B. F. 



A CHART OF CHILD STUDY AND CHILD TRAINING 
FOR THE FIRST YEAR 

BASED ON "MY FIRST YEAR WITH JOHN," BY MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN 



THE BABY'S RESPONSES 

He is ever busy in apparently purposeless move- 
ments. 

He acts as if he wanted to move about. 

He begins to focus and direct his eyes. 

He grasps things and puts them in his mouth. 

He is sensitive to noises and rhythms. 

He not only handles things, but seems to like to 
search and find other things. 

He likes to be with people. 

He imitates. 

He is easily frightened. 

Whatever he has done a number of times he 
tends to repeat easily and constantly. 

He babbles as if he would like to talk. 



He likes to do some things that involve destruc- 
tiveness. 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 

If we put various objects in his way his attention 

may be caught and he may gradually learn to 

grasp and handle them. 
If we push against his legs we may stimulate a 

creeping motion. 
Bright or glittering- objects placed close to him 

may help. 
If we select a variety of safe objects he will thus 

learn their shape, feeling, size, and weight. 
We may let him take articles that will make a 

noise if pounded together, and we may sing 

and play on the piano to hiin. 
We may put things in boxes and drawers and on 

trays for him, and place things just beyond 

his reach without moving. 
We should let him watch us at our work, and 

should talk to him. 
We should always do what he may safely imitate 

slowly and in the same way, so he may copy. 
We should be careful not to startle him. 
We must be careful never to let him do more 

than once what we do not desire him to do 

often. We should drill him in doing the right 

thing regularly. 
We may use the name of a person or thing over 

and over, until he at least understands it, 

and may try to say it. If we can use one 

of his own syllables that has a real meaning, 

so much the better. 
We may make him like what we wish by seeing 

that doing it always has an agreeable result, 

and vice versa. 



Tlu 



'A CH4RT OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 

FIRST YEAR (From Birth to the First Birthday) 

references suggest helpful expUiiuitory passages in "The Child Welfare Manual" 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 
[I. 204-211] 

Movements: at birth, undirected; 2d month, hand 
to mouth, Hfting head: 3d month, supporting 
head, conscious grasping: 3d to 4th months, 
sitting efforts; Sth month, handHng objects; 
6fh to 9th months, sitting unsupported; 6th 
to 7th months, standing efforts; 7th to Sth 
months, creeping; 9th to 10th months, stand- 
ing; 12th to 18th months, walking [I. 210], 
In general, motion centers first about the 
mouth, then the hands and feet, first to get 
things where he can observe them, and then 
to get to where they are. 

Proportions: at birtli, head great, chest small, 
abdomen prominent, arms and legs short, 
legs bowed [I. 204], 

Weight: at birth 5 to 10 pounds; average 7 to 
7J4: boys heavier than girls; at 1 year, boys 
1 pound heavier [I. 204], 

Height: at birth, 16 to 22 inches; at 1 year, aver- 
age 27 inches [I. 382]. 

Respiration: abdominal, 40 down to 30. Pulse, 
150 down to 120, with variations [I. 283]. 

Temperature: 99 down to 98 [I. 204, 284]. 

Dentition: 1st teeth, Sth to 9th months; 2d group, 
Sth to 12th months; 3d, 12th to 18th months 
[I. 209], 



PHYSICAL SUGGESTIONS 
[I. 177-220] 

Sleep: to 3d month. 22 hours; to 6th month, 20 
hours; to 12th month, 16 hours [I. 186-188, 
203]. 

Hygienic protection: furnish cleanliness, fresh air, 
sunlight, warmth [I. 188-192, 194, 203]; keep 
regular records of temperature, weight, 
height, food, bowel movements, etc. [I. 204- 
211]; shortened garments for creeping, 6tli 
month [I. 189, 190]. 

Food: mother's milk, if possible [I. 166-169], fol- 
lowed by prescriptions of mi.xed foods bv 
physician [I. 177-186]. 

Exercise: change position from 1st day; seat the 
child upright with support, 3d to 4th months; 
offer toys to encourage stretching, reaching, 
grasping, leg and trunk motions, and creep- 
ing [I. 190, 207], 4th month; give standing 
exercises from Sth month [I. 209] ; help 
walking, from 11th month [I. 210], 

Habits: all the above with regularity [II. 10]; 
avoid sucking habits, pacifiers, emotional 
tricks [I. 206, 209]. 



26 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 
[I. 169-171] 

Sense development: sense of contact and tem- 
perature soon after birth; touch soon grows 
out of first; sight, or light-consciousness, 
1st to 3d days; directing and fixing eyes, 
about 6lh week; hearing, 1st to 4th days — 
signs indicating hearing often come in first 
hours; taste and smell last of senses to de- 
velop, time varies during 1st weeks; con- 
sciousness of rhythm, 2d montli; of musical 
tones, about 12th month; distinguishing color, 
10th to 12th months [II. 33, 34]. 

Emotions: emotional crying, 3d or 4th months 
[I. 205, 206]; varied emotions, 10th to 11th 
months; crowing, 2d to 3d months; laughing, 
3d to Sth months [IL 135-137, 169-171], 

Memory: recognition of mother, at 3d month; of 
others, 4th to Sth months; of experiences, 6th 
to 12th months. All memory transient and 
held for a few days only [II. 170]. 

Understanding: tones (in voice of mother), 3d to 
Sth months; signs, Sth to 9th months; words, 
about 9th month. 

Speech: cooing, 3d month; vowel sounds, 6th 
month; a few words, 12th to 15th months. 

Mental activities: trial and success, about 10th 
week; sense of place and direction, Sth to 
7th months; development of active curiosity 
and interest in things and persons, 4th to Sth 
months. 

Imitation of acts of others, from 7th month; 
pleasure in showing off, 10th to 12th months 
[11.171]. 

Comparison of objects noticeable, during second 
half of year. 

Instincts: anger, 1st month [II. 137]; fear, 2d 
month; curiosity, Sth month; play, Sth to 6th 
months. 

MENTAL SUGGESTIONS 
[II. 33-37] 

Avoid jolting, loud noises and over-stimulation, 
from the first [II. 170]. 

Play: to stimulate curiosity, trial, and success, 
from Sth month; to encourage imitation and 
memory, from 7th month; to teach vowel 
sounds and meaning of words, Sth to 9th 
months; in general, self-amusement and self- 
directed play, from Sth month. Give few 
simple little toys; play with mother, from Sth 
to 6th months; with others, Sth month 
[I. 207], 

Sense training: use varied objects to exercise 
touch and sight, from 2d month; bright ob- 
jects, from 4th month; lullabies and soft 
music, from 2d month; colors, toward close 
of year [II. 34-37]. 

By frequent repetitions, help to understand simple 
words, from 4th month. Begin to try to get 
child to say a few words, end of year. 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPiMENT 

FIRST YEAR (From Birth to the First Birthday) 

These references suggest helpful explanatory passages in "The Child Welfare Manual" 



SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Consciousness of touch of mother, 1st to 3d 
weeks; recognition of others, 3d to Stii 
months. 

Sociability (beginning of), Sth month. 

Affection, aversion, and imitation first shown, 3d 
to Sth months. 

Dependence and sympathy evident, 7th month 
and after. 

Realization of the approbation of others, 4th to 
Sth months. 

Individualist throughout the year; influenced by 
others, but self-centered, 9th to 10th months. 

In general the pre-social stage. 



SOCIAL SUGGESTIONS 



MORAL DEVELOPMENT 

No moral sense. 

Sense of comfort or discomfort [II. 9], leading to 

Pleasure and displeasure. 

Docility, with some tendency to oppose condi- 
tions rather than persons, toward end of 
period. 

Impressibility by the will of others. 

Trustfulness in others. 

Dependence. 

Desire to please, Sth to 6th months, forming basis 
of 

Obedience. 



MORAL SUGGESTIONS 



Give watchful companionship of mother from 1st 
month [II. 33, 34]. 

Carry baby to sunUght, about room, etc., from 
2d month. 

Talk to the child from 3d to Sth months. 

Cooperative play from 7th month. 

Give example of calmness in speech, quietness in 
manner, cheerfulness, self-control, from tlie 
first. Avoid anger by absence of provoca- 
tion, by solitude and quiet [I. 207]. 

Make expressions of affection and sympathy, 

especially in second half of year. 

Play simple games after Sth month, with parents 
and children of family. Not with others. 
Games: "How Big Is the Baby?" "Pat a 
Cake," "This Little Pig Went to Market," etc. 

Teach to recognize kindred, by repeating their 
names, and later he will repeat them himself. 
K.X.— 4 27 



Fix regular, simple habits as to eating, sleeping, 
dressing, plaving [II. 11]. No sucking habits 
or pacifiers [I. 203, 206, 209, 307]. 

Train for obedience through habits of regularity, 
submission and self-control. 

Drill to understand signs and simple commands 
and to obey them. 

Give room for free action whenever possible 
within limit set by parent and understood by 
child. 

Allow no emotional tricks by which the baby 
tries to "rule the roost." 



A dreary place would be this earth, 

Were there no little people in it; 
The song of life would lose its mirth 

Were there no people to begin it. 

No babe within our arms to sleep. 

No little feet toward slumber tending, 

No little knee in prayer to bend, 
Or lips the sweet words lending. 

The sterner souls would grow more stern. 

Unfeeling natures more inhuman. 
And man to stoic coldness turn, 

And woman would be less than woman. 

Life's song, indeed, would lose its charm 

Were there no babies to begin it; 
A doleful place this world would be, 

Were there no little people in it. 

—J. G. Whittier. 



WHAT TO EXPECT THE FIRST YEAR 



THE FIRST YEAR IN A BABY'S LIFE 



WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 

"To unanointed eyes, zvhat is he? Just a Utile red. squirming thing, zvifh eyes shut for the most part, with 
tight-clenched fists, ivith a toothless, suching mouth, a hairless head, much too large for his body, — an impu- 
dent little thing n'ho makes the whole adult household stand around, and imposes his oivn laius upon every one, 
regardless of their preferences; a frail little thing, tcho has to he handled in ways so mysterious that the 
uninitiated flee from the attempt ; and only one of millions and millions of others, just like himself ! 

"This to the unanointed. To the mother zvhose eyes have received the chrism from mighty Nature, he is 
one of the immortals, laid in her all-unworthy arms. She knows herself a responsible human being, with one 
of Cod's children lent to her — a child for zvhose body, mind, and soul she is to render an account." 

— Marion Foster Washburne. 



The Baby at Birth 

A NEW-BORN baby has little beauty that anybody 
should desire him. A baby regarded as "hand- 
some" from the doctor's point of view can be 
recognized as such by a layman only through an 
acquired sense of beauty or a sense of humor. 

Proportions. — In comparison with the adult, the 
most immediately noticeable points are the exag- 
gerated head and abdomen, the shorter legs, the 
unfinished nose and the shortened neck. The 
new-born baby appears to be considerably un- 
finished. "Indeed," as Sully so truly says, "he 
resembles for all the world a public building 
which has to be opened by a given day, and is 
found, when the day arrives, to be in a humiliat- 
ing state of incompleteness." 

Helplessness. — The complete helplessness of a 
new-born child has been described as follows : 
"Unable to stand, much less to wander in search 
of food, nearly deaf, all but blind, well nigh in- 
discriminating as to the nature of what is pre- 
sented to its mouth, utterly unable to keep itself 
clean, yet highly susceptible to the effects of dirt, 
able to indicate its needs only by alternately turn- 
ing its head, open-mouthed, from side to side, 
and then crying; possessed of an almost lu- 
dicrously hypersensitive interior, unable to fast 
for more than two or three hours, yet having 
the most precise and complicated dietetic require- 



ment; needing the most carefully maintained 
warmth, easily injured by draughts, — where is to 
be found a more complete picture of helpless 
dependence ?" 

It is this helplessness which has been the im- 
memorial appeal to mother-love, to which the 
innate chivalry of the mother-heart has always 
responded. It is this response which carries the 
baby through the crisis of its first hours of life. 
The incompleteness and helplessness are, we 
know, not final. It is the very attention of the 
mother to them which first stimulates the un- 
folding of the marvelous development of the 
body, the senses, and the mind. 

The Baby's Movements 

The first thing that anybody notices about a 
new-born baby probably is its movements. All 
these movements are "set off by some outside 
action on the senses, as a gun is set off by a touch 
on the trigger," and not by any inner impulse. 

Crying. — The first of these movements is a cry. 
There is a difference of opinion as to the nature 
of a child's first cry. Kant considered that it was 
a cry of wrath, Schwartz a shout of joy, while 
Sully humorously hints that it is highly sug- 
gestive of a cynical contempt for its new sur- 
roundings. "It is," says Mrs. Meynell, "a hasty, 
huddled outcry, loud and brief, rather deep than 
shrill in tone. Man does not weep at beginning 



29 



30 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



this world. He simply lifts up his new voice." 
This first cry, unmistakably monotonous and 
dismal, is apparently a response to a certain 
measure of discomfort felt by this tiny "wrecked 
seaman" on reaching shore. This is probably 
occasioned by a number of causes : the first ex- 
perience of breathing, the first effect of light, the 
jar of vibrations, and the possible pain of the first 
contact of the skin with the air, the hands of the 
nurse, and the touch of clothing. 

None of his movements can be restrained by the 
infant himself. It is amusing to note that a new- 
born babe sneezes, coughs, and chokes, quite un- 
consciously to itself and without control and 
without discomfort. 

From the first the mother will notice many 
spontaneous and random movements of almost 
every part of the body. These movement-j are 
caused from internal conditions and changes, and 
consequent outflow of energy. They tend toward 
the pre-natal position. 

The Baby's Senses 

Touch. — The first of the senses which seems 
to awake is that of touch. This might be called 
the parent of all the other senses. It is partly 
passive, as when the lips feel the breast. It 
is partly active, as when the infant immediately 
clasps the filiger which is brought into the hollow 
of its tiny hand. 

These two acts of sucking and clasping already 
suggest what are to become the first two means 
of the infant's education, as the sensitive nerve- 
ends of the lips, the tongue, and the fingers bring 
the child into contact with its new world. 

Sight. — The new-born baby is practically blind, 
not because he has not the organs of eyesight, but 
because he can not as yet see things, in the proper 
sense of the word. The earliest sense of sight 
seems to be the recognition of the difference 
between light and darkness. Several report the 
turning of the head toward the light during the 
first week. Babies seem conscious very early of 
any large dark mass that interrupts the light. 
The eyes, however, at the beginning are attracted 
to nothing and fixed on nothing. They do not 
wink, there is no change of focus, and they do not 
always even move in unison. As Miss Shinn * 
says, "Some extraordinary and alarming contor- 
tions result." A baby very early shows discom- 
fort at too much light. 

Hearing. — A baby hears nothing within the first 
hours. The middle ear is stopped up with fluid. 
It seems that babies are more responsive to jars 



* Millicent W. Shinn, author of "The Biography of a 
Baby." 



than to noises, and they have been known to make 
startled movements at sudden jars, even upon the 
first day. 

Other Senses. — The senses of taste and smell 
are present from the beginning, but can be excited 
only by strong artificial stimuli. What we used 
to call "the sense of feeling," is now regarded, 
not as a single sense, but as a group, called "the 
skin senses." The baby from the first is aware 
when he is touched or patted, and is very sensi- 
tive to cold touches, but not to surface-pains. 
While the skin is not so sensitive as the lips, the 
nostrils, and the finger-tips, it responds to a gen- 
eral sense of comfort or discomfort. Another 
sense is that of equilibrium or motion. Babies 
have been known, even from the first, to make 
convulsive movements when held in a position 
which implied that they might be dropped. 

Hunger. — The senses of hunger and thirst are 
at the beginning practically one, and are apparent 
from the first. There is soon a marked differ- 
ence in tone between the cry caused by pain and 
that occasioned by hunger. The sense of thirst 
is very active. The baby's body is largely com- 
posed of water, and the evaporation from the 
loose texture of the skin is very great. Many 
of the distresses of a child, which seem to the 
parent to indicate colic or natural depravity, are 
satisfied by a spoonful of cold water. 

There are, no doubt, certain conditions which 
are composite of several senses. A baby some- 
times feels discomfort, caused by the pressure of 
clothes and the constraint in the muscles and 
circulation, because of being kept in a single posi- 
tion too long. Since a baby can not move a limb 
at will, it is necessary for relief that these changes 
of position be produced by another person. 

Summary of the New-Born Baby 

Miss Shinn sums up all that we have been say- 
ing, as follows : 

"Here is the conception I gathered of the dim 
life on which the little creature entered at birth. 
She took in with a dull comfort the gentle light 
that fell on her eyes, seeing without any sort of 
attention or comprehension the moving blurs of 
darkness that varied it. She felt motions and 
changes; she felt the action of her own muscles; 
and, after the first three or four days, disagree- 
able shocks of sound now and then broke through 
the silence or, perhaps, through an unnoticed 
jumble of faint noises. She felt touches on her 
body from time to time, but without the least 
sense of the place of the touch; and steady slight 
sensations of touch from her clothes, from arms 
that held her, from cushions on which she lay, 
poured in on her. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



31 



"From time to time sensations of hunger, thirst, 
and once or twice of pain, made themselves felt 
through all the others, and mounted till they be- 
came distressing; from time to time a feeling of 
heightened comfort flowed over her, as hunger 
and thirst were satisfied, or release from clothes, 
and the effect of the bath and rubbing on her 
circulation increased the net sense of well-being. 
She felt slight and unlocated discomforts from 
fatigue in one position, quickly relieved by the 
watchful nurse. For the rest, she lay empty- 
minded, neither consciously comfortable nor un- 
comfortable, yet on the whole pervaded with a 
dull sense of well-being. Of the people about her, 
of her mother's face, of her own existence, of 
desire or fear, she knew nothing. 

"Yet this dim dream was flecked all through 
with the beginnings of later comparison and 
choice. The light was varied with dark ; the feel- 
ings of passive motion, of muscular action, of 
touch, of sound, were all unlike each other ; the 
discomforts of hunger, of pain, of fatigue, were 
different discomforts. The baby began from the 
first moment to accumulate varied experience, 
which before long would waken attention, in- 
terest, discrimination, and vivid life." 

This little creature is unripe, it is true, but 
he is "all there." In the normal infant no senses 
or potentialities are lacking; and he is not a 
merely inert mass. He is responsive, and in that 
responsiveness exists our ability to communicate 
with him and his whole capability of education. 
The human presence of a mother, touching, hand- 
ling, caressing, protecting, stimulating, guiding, 
loving — this is the link between the helplessness 
of the baby and all his future. 

It is the divine task of mothers to earn con- 
tact between herself and the little mite who is 
so far unconscious of her very being. For the 
baby now, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning so won- 
derfully says : 

"Lifted up and separated on the hand of God he lies. 
In a sweetness beyond touching, held in cloistral 
sanctities." 

The First Month 

Sight. — After the first two weeks the eyes of a 
baby cease to wander altogether helplessly and 
begin to "stop and cling" to bright surfaces. 
Professor Sully thinks that the ability to do this 
indicates that the eyes hold this attitude under 
the stimulus of pleasure. It is certainly true that 
pleasure and attention increase the power of con- 
trolling the muscles, and help the child to seek 
the same paths it has used before. By the end 
of this month. Miss Shinn observed that a baby 
not only moved its eyes, but threw its head back 



to see better, and seemed to gaze with a sort of 
dim eagerness. Soon after, the child showed the 
ability to follow a moving object with the eyes. 
Up to this time the baby's world of vision was 
"probably still only patches of light and dark, 
with bits of glitter and motion." In connection 
with the ability to follow with the eyes came the 
desire to lift the head. Probably this was not 
done by any real effort, but the child soon learned 
that to lift its head helped in bet.ter seeing. 
Preyer thinks this is the first real act of will in 
a child's mind. Miss Shinn noticed toward the 
end of the first month that a baby seemed to at- 
tend to the new impression she was getting with 
an awakening look, apparently expressive of 
wonder or intelligence. 

Memory. — By the end of this month it has been 
noticed that a baby seems to be able to form some 
associations. A baby crying with hunger would 
hush as soon as she was taken in the arms in the 
position used in nursing. She could not have 
remembered nor expected anything as yet, but she 
was beginning to show a clear instance of the 
working of that great law of association which 
was later to develop into memory. This law 
seems to be that, when experiences have repeat- 
edly been had together, the occurrence of one of 
them tends to bring up the others. This power 
Miss Shinn calls "habit-memory." 

Hearing.- — The infant seems to be conscious 
of jars before it is of noises. By the last of the 
month a baby may be hushed by the sound of 
chords struck upon a piano, and soon after this 
it seems to be soothed by being talked or sung to. 

The mother, of course, looks early for the 
baby's first smile. The first real smile, as an ex- 
pression of pleasure, is no doubt caused by the 
touch of some adult's finger upon the lip. The 
lips are the first source of touch-sensations. 

Companionship. — A baby, even before it is a 
month old, recognizes the difference between be- 
ing alone and being in companionship. This can 
not be entirely caused by hearing, but is probably 
chiefly occasioned by a sense of comfort, pro- 
duced by being held in the lap and given the 
exercise of changes of position. 

Miss Shinn emphasizes the fact that the moth- 
er's face and presence are the ideal earliest means 
of education to a baby. The mother's face hover- 
ing over the child suggests variations of light and 
shadow, as it is touched by the sunshine or as it 
intervenes between the baby's eyes and the light. 
Singing and talking give comfort to the awaken- 
ing sense of hearing. The patting and cuddling 
delight the sense of touch in the lips, the fingers, 
and the skin. The loving fondling by the mother 
gives the little body the changes of position which 



32 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL, 



furnish both rest and exercise. One important 
reason why orphanage babies die is because no- 
body "nestles" them. 

Touch. — "Touch," says Mrs. Washburne, "is 
especially the love-sense, and we who can not yet 
make the little children understand our words, can 
tell them, through our hands, how dear they are 
to us and how tenderly we care for them." 

The Second Month 

The baby's smile becomes more constant now, 
and it is usually at human faces. "It wiles the 
very heart out of one;" but as Miss Shinn says, 
"The baby means little enough by it." 

Sight. — Babies are now beginning to be car- 
ried out into the air. They like the sense of 
motion in a baby carriage, perhaps also the 
fresher air; but at first they are troubled by the 
dazzling light, and they must be protected care- 
fully from the glare. Babies can not have too 
much sunshine, but their eyes, just opening like 
those of other folk, must not face strong lights 
either indoors or out. They now insist upon be- 
ing held up so that they can see things, they turn 
their eyes especially toward persons, and they be- 
gin to focus them for different distances. Some- 
time during this month come the first tears. 

"Wide-open eyes," says Mrs. Washburne, 
"show a high degree of pleasurable feeling. This 
may be observed when the baby is brought near 
his mother's breast, or is put in the warm bath. 
It is as if, as one observer remarks, the eyes 
laughed." 

Fears. — The sense of hearing begins to sharpen 
now, and perhaps the first fear (most primitive 
of instincts) will come from some sudden sound. 
The fright of course is not because of anticipated 
danger, but it is shown by the pathetic grimace 
of crying and perhaps by a sharp cry. The in- 
fant may be soothed now, even when hungry, by 
chords on the piano. Tracy * thinks there are two 
chief sources of pleasure in music : the time and 
the tune. He thinks infants usually enjoy both 
during the first few weeks of life. He says that 
"from six or seven weeks onward, and especially 
in the latter half of the first year, the child's 
pleasure in music is often shown by a sort of ac- 
companying muscular movements, which he seems 
unable to repress. The mother's song of lullaby 
is keenly appreciated, and somewhat later is even 
given back by the child in a most charming infant 
warble." 

The baby's own sounds now begin to differ. 
Since the monotonous cry of birth there have 



* Frederick Tracy, author of "Psychology of Childhood." 



been fretting noises, now this cry of fright, later 
"cooing murmurs" and even a sudden crow. 

Muscles. — The infant begins to control his 
muscles. Not only does he make fewer random 
movements and turn his head and lift his neck, 
but he props himself with his knees and engages 
in various pulling and pushing motions, which are 
at first accidental, but soon become voluntary. 
Miss Shinn emphasizes the putting out and draw- 
ing back of the tip of the tongue between the 
pursed lips as evidence that the baby is trying 
to use two means of touch at once. The whole 
"plot of the story," in Miss Shinn's words, is 
going to turn mainly on the combination of 
muscle-sense with sight and of muscle-sense with 
touch. In other words, the baby is not going to 
stop with the passive feeling of having things 
passed over its lips or fingers, but is going to try 
active touch-e.xperiments of its own. 

Will. — "The order of development," says Mrs. 
Washburne, "seems to be this ; First, the baby 
tastes things; next, he sees them; later, he sees 
and desires to taste. Then he tastes, and again 
desires, more than before. Thereupon he sees, 
seizes, and tastes. You notice the increase in de- 
sire and the increase in the number of senses and 
faculties that work toward the gratification of 
this desire. This is will, taking greater and 
greater possession of the human body.'' 

Feelings. — The emotional life begins to awaken, 
as is shown by the fright, by a look of surprise 
at his own crowing, by unprecedented content 
when held nearly erect upon a pillow. Sully 
thinks anger shows itself even earlier than fear, 
and if the vexation of disappointment be re- 
garded as the germ of wrath, claims to have 
noted it as early as the third week. 

Still, the baby sleeps most of the time, in long 
naps of six or seven hours. It is noticeable that, 
after some new attainment, an unusually bright 
day or a prolonged waking period, the child sleeps 
soundly for a longer period than usual. Evidently 
he is easily wearied with any rush of impressions. 
Thus he draws to the close of what Sully calls 
"the vegetable period." 

The Third Month 

Grasping. — So far the tongue has been the 
active agent of touch. It is brought into active 
contact with the lips or with the cheeks of friends. 
Now the fingers become active. The finger-tips 
may be held together. The fingers, which had 
unconsciously found the mouth since the begin- 
ning, seem now to search for it. Thumb-sucking 
begins to be agreeable. The fingers also carry 
everything possible to the mouth. It is difficult 
to say whether this is to test them by the sense of 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



33 



touch or that of taste, since, as Perez * says, 
"Pretty to look at and good to eat mean the 
same thing." Grasping now becomes more like 
conscious holding, and for the first time the thumb 
is opposed to the fingers. It is well to place safe 
objects, like spools, rings, etc.. within reach, even 
before the time for conscious holding comes. "To 
wait till he knows how to grasp before giving 
him things to practice on is," says Miss Shinn, 
"like keeping a boy out of water till he knows how 
to swim." During these vague endeavors to relate 
the two sources of touch-sensations by trying to 
carry something from the hand to the mouth, 
there is no knowledge yet that the eyes can help 
in the endeavor. 

Memory seems to appear. A face is recognized, 
probably simply by means of the high lights upon 
it, and often, as Sullyf says, chiefly as "a bearded 
plaything." Even an absent or departing presence 
is searched for with the eyes. A room is ex- 
amined object by object, and there is a restless- 
ness that can be satisfied by being taken into an- 
other room. The limit of vision now is probably 
about twenty-five feet. Miss Shinn thought that 
during this month her sister's baby smiled less 
often and more often looked with seriousness or 
wonder, as if her world were growing complex 
and required more study. 

Sitting up. — The most distinctly conscious act 
of will in this direction of self-education may be 
the effort to sit upright, either aided or alone. 

The Fourth Month 

Reaching. — Miss Shinn brightly describes the 
growing consciousness of self which the baby at- 
tains by this time, confined, however, chiefly to 
her own face, by saying that "Her feeling of 
herself must have been like that of a conventional 
cherub — all but her head dissolved away into one- 
ness with the outside world." It may not be till 
well on in this month that the baby comes to 
realize that what she sees is the same thing as 
what she feels. Now for the first time she may 
see an object, and then definitely and directly 
reach for it, as the result, with her hands. Even 
then she is likely to reach with her mouth before 
she does with her hands, sometimes bobbing the 
whole head forward in the attempt to do so. 

Sight. — Miss Shinn thinks that now a baby be- 
gins to notice alterations in the room, that she is 
first puzzled by the apparent changes of size in 
approaching and departing forms and by the 
alterations of appearance when persons and 



* Bernard Perez, author of "First Three Years of Child- 
hood.** 

t James Sully, author of "Children's Ways,'* "Outlines of 
Psychology," "Studies of Childhood," etc. 



things are turned around. Sully noted about this 
time that an effect of shock showed itself when 
something in the familiar scene was transmuted. 
His child was quite upset when his mother donned 
a red jacket in place of the usual flower-spotted 
dress. "He was just proceeding to take his 
breakfast when he noticed the change, at the 
discovery of which all thoughts of feasting de- 
serted him, his lips quivered and he only became 
reassured of his whereabouts after taking a good 
look at his mother's face." It was during this 
month, in Miss Shinn's observation, that her sis- 
ter's baby was first frightened when awaking in 
the dark. 

Fears. — There are, Tracy thinks, two kinds of 
fear in young children : Hereditary fears, that 
are independent of the memory of hurtful experi- 
ences, and fears that are produced by mental 
images of danger. Babies often cry when it 
thunders ; they shrink up at the sense of falling, 
before they have ever fallen ; they tremble at the 
sight of large and majestic objects like the ocean. 
Early, they seem more afraid of sounds than of 
sights. Eye-fears and touch-fears soon develop, 
and the objects that arouse fear are often un- 
accountable. These must all be classed as heredi- 
tary or instinctive fears, and some of them have 
been explained — such as the fear of falling, as a 
relic of the tree-stage of human existence ; the 
fear of fur, a reminiscence of primeval contact 
with wild beasts. There is really a third class 
of fears — those caused by suggestion. The fear 
of thunder, for instance, perhaps not so early as 
this, but at a very early stage, is often the imita- 
tion of the shrinking of the mother. 

Memory of faces seems to be getting clear, and 
an accidental splash in the water is followed the 
next day by a voluntary one. A pleasant or a 
striking occurrence tends to fix itself in the mind. 

The emotional life expresses itself in delight at 
tumbling and being tumbled about gently, in fre' 
quent smiles and vocal sounds, and in facial ex- 
pressions, not only of wonder, but of desire. 

The Fifth Month 

Touch. — Miss Shinn calls this "the era of han- 
dling things." As the eye had been busy the pre- 
vious month in learning how objects look from 
different sides, so now the child for the first time 
uses sight and touch and muscle feeling together, 
to discover the shapes of things. At first he is 
unable to do this by sight alone, and for a brief 
time will endeavor to pick pictures from a page or 
shadows from the floor. Meantime, the process 
goes on of watching people in motion, and a child 
will forget food and sleep in the eager following 
of the drama of a roomful of lively people. 



34 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Miss Shinn noted how the baby whom she 
studied learned the difference between active and 
passive feeling by bumping the back of her head. 
Though she had been touched upon that spot by 
the pillow and by human hands, and though the 
bumping experience was not pleasant, she kept 
trying to reproduce the feeling, apparently in 
order to help realize that the back of her head 
belonged to herself. 

Playthings. — As the baby continued the proc- 
ess of learning to know the shape and qualities 
of objects brought within its grasp, Miss Shinn 
noted a preference for bright, hard, and rattling 
things, and so she advises that the earliest play- 
things should not be soft, but definite to the 
touch, varied in form, glittering rather than 
brightly colored, and made, for safety, of rubber, 
bone and, perhaps, aluminum. 

During tlijs month the child may become able 
to sit in a chair unsupported : he may roll over 
and squirm into a variety of positions, some of 
them prophetic of creeping. 

The child has now learned to discriminate be- 
tween faces and, probably, between voices. He 
reaches out his hands toward a friend, he varies 
his sounds to include a call for attention and even 
a pleading to be taken up, distinctly more sociable 
than the earlier solitary cry of hunger or pain. 

The Sixth Month 

Purpose. — Miss Shinn considers the sixth 
month to be the transition between two great 
development periods — that of learning the senses, 
which is passing, and that of learning to carry 
the body, which is to come. She finds this month 
significant as the one in which a baby notably 
begins to use means for ends. 

The special instance which Miss Shinn men- 
tions is that of putting the toe in the mouth, an 
act "that most people find it most impossible to 
regard with scientific seriousness." Miss Shinn, 
however, shows how deeply educative it is. In 
the first place, the child has to learn to conquer 
the refractoriness of the toe, which tries to fly off 
just as it is being grasped, first by using muscular 
force in his arms, and later by restraining the 
muscular activity of his own leg. Not only does 
this act help the little one to discover himself from 
head to toe, but it seems to encourage him to feel 
of his head and ears and the rest of his body and 
to annex them to himself as his own. Dr. R. W. 
Hastings * urges that the diapers be not allowed 
to hamper the action of the knees and legs, and 



♦ Robert W. Hastings, author of "Health of the School 
Child." 



several have suggested that it is good as well as 
healthy to let a baby squirm about nude each day 
in a room that is properly heated and protected 
from currents of air. 

Curiosity. — The way a child seems to learn to 
do things is to execute them accidentally and then 
endeavor deliberately to repeat the process. 

In almost every instance the impelling force 
behind the accident that leads to experiment is 
surprise. 

So surprise leads on into curiosity, and the ex- 
ercise of curiosity is the chief industry of any 
baby as soon as he acquires any means of 
locomotion. 

Curiosity once excited, the child pursues its 
leading with extraordinary persistence and pa- 
tience, especially where it is possible to do so by 
any manual activity. Certain movements of limbs 
or vocal organs are produced over and over for 
several days, then a new one is practiced for a 
while. Various combinations of movements are 
made, and the muscles and the senses are thus 
exercised and associated in countless ways. 

Memory. — The ability to recognize an incident 
and to repeat an act appears earlier than most 
of us suppose. 

"The little child," says Tracy, "is capable of 
memories long.before he has learned to speak. A 
little boy, six months old, whose hand had been 
slightly burned by a hot vase, shrank back at the 
sight of this article a few days after." Miss 
Shinn found that associative memory was more 
strongly developed now than before. After beg- 
ging for a spoon, the child was unsatisfied until 
it was filled with milk, as it had been before. 
She knew what the baby carriage was for. She 
knew what kind of frolic to expect from each 
individual in the home. 

Speech. — There seemed to Miss Shinn to be a 
development of sign-language during this month. 
The baby indicated by a series of actions her desire 
to repeat the creeping experiment upon the table. 
She reached out of a baby carriage and called 
to her aunt. She had a special sound ("a sort of 
little bleating," Darwin called it) when coaxing 
for a frolic, and there were distinctly understood 
variations when she wished to be taken up into her 
mother's arms or in asking for an object out of 
reach. She now showed unexplainable signs of 
repulsion for certain strangers ; and on the other 
hand seemed, by soft caresses bestowed only upon 
her favorites, to indicate a dawning affection. 
She once searched in vain for her mother during 
a prolonged absence, then settled into a pitiful, 
steady crying, and for several days after seemed 
to watch her mother rather anxiously, as if she 
might again forsake her. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



35 



Sympathy. — Just how much we are to make of 
these first signs of a humane feeling will de- 
pend upon the feelings of the observer. Sully 
tells us how his child of a little over six months 
responded to the father's pretense of crying by 
bending his own head down and pawing his 
father's face. He did this again when the father's 
act was repeated. "A smile on the termination 
of the crying completed the curious little play. 
Who would venture to interpret that falling of 
the head and that caressing movement of the 
hand? The father saw here something of a 
divine tenderness." Do you question his inter- 
pretation? 

Miss Shinn sums up the story of the first half 
year as follows : "The breathing automaton had 
become an eager and joyous little being, seeing 
and hearing and feeling much as we do, know- 
ing her own body somewhat, and controlling it 
throughout to a certain extent, laughing and 
frolicking, enjoying the vision of the world with 
a delicious zest, clinging to us not so much for 
physical protection as for human companionship, 
beginning to show a glimmer of intelligence, and 
to cross over with sign and sound the abyss be- 
tween spirit and spirit." 

The Remainder of the First Year 

It has seemed well to go into considerable detail 
as to the first six months of the baby's life, so 
that the mother who reads this may know what 
to watch for and to enjoy in the rapidly unfold- 
ing little being ; but from this time, when the 
progress of babies differs, it will be better to trace 
the general steps of progress up to the end of the 
first year. 

Getting about. — The baby, whose chief delight 
has now become handling things, comes by this 
time to feel the need of getting to them when 
they are out of reach. He manages to do this 
in a number of ways. Perhaps a normal history 
of locomotion would consist of various hitching- 
along movements by the seventh month, followed 
by an apparently aimless rolling, which, however, 
will bring the various objects on the floor in the 
track of the explorer. There may be great joy 
in rolling, to the same end. Creeping, which 
often occurs in the ninth month, may start with 
moving backward, perhaps, because the arms are 
stronger than the legs, but it almost immediately 
becomes purposeful and effective in pursuing the 
objects of play. At once there seems to be an 
instinct to stand, and the child soon pulls himself 
up by low objects, totters feebly near his sup- 
port, sits down gently or forcefully and then tries 
again. Climbing, too, seems instinctive by the 



tenth month, and Miss Tanner * thinks the art is 
an inheritance and one to be encouraged, with 
proper cautions, much more than is the wont of 
mothers. At about this same time a baby will 
usually begin to edge along, while standing with 
the support of a chair, and will probably discover 
the delightful ability to push a chair across the 
room. By the end of the year the baby may take 
a step from one chair across a small gap to an- 
other, or walk from the wall a step to a waiting 
pair of hands. Sometimes these experiments 
satisfy, and the child makes no further progress 
in locomotion for several v.'eeks; or he may 
suddenly take a step or two alone, and in a day 
or two be vi'alking comfortably about. In the 
case of a healthy child there need be no anxiety 
if he does not establish an early walking record 
for the neighborhood. 

Muscles. — As to the exact progress which the 
baby has made in muscle control, Kirkpatrickf 
speaks as follows : 

"The muscles first brought under control are 
the larger ones of the whole arm, while the space 
in which control is first e.xercised is directly in 
front and near the level of the mouth. 

"Other movements than those of the hand come 
under voluntary control in a similar way; first 
the eyes and head in turning toward sights and 
sounds, then the body in sitting, then the hands 
in grasping, and finally, near the close of the 
first year, the legs in creeping, standing and 
walking, and the vocal organs in repeating 
sounds." 

Babies seem, from their comparative indiffer- 
ence to bumps and bruises, to have small skin- 
sensitiveness. They cry rather from nervous 
fright and from conscious need of sympathy. A 
baby, when he is hurt, rarely cries unless there 
is someone near to hear him. 

Sight. — After a baby learns to creep and walk 
he displays an increasing reluctance to be held, 
and his waking hours are entirely happy if spent 
upon the floor or upon the grass in summer, ex- 
ploring his world and rejoicing that it is "so full 
of a number of things. Especially now does out 
of doors, with its pleasant breezes, its moving 
sights and his own possibility of activity, engage 
the young child, who by this time has learned to 
lift up his voice in an abandon of ecstasy. Animal 
pets, that have earlier been feared, now become 
entrancing, with their soft fur, their lively actions 
and their elusive way of escaping when they have 
been imposed upon by baby's grasping fingers. 



• .Amy Eliza Tanner, author of "The Child: His Thinking, 
Feeling, and Doing." 

t Edward -Asbury Kirkpatrick, author of "Fundamentals of 
Child Study," "Individual in the Making," etc. 



36 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



It has been estimated that the baby's world has 
now a radius of a hundred feet of vision, in which 
objects are possibly beginning to differentiate in 
color as they already have in size and distance. 

Imitation. — It seems to be generally agreed that 
imitation begins during the second half of the 
first year. Tracy cites a child who at seven 
months endeavored to copy the movements of the 
head and lips, laughing, and the like by adults ; at 
nine months he imitated crying; at ten months 
he copied movements and sounds of all sorts. A 
little girl of eleven months would reproduce with 
her doll some of her own experiences, such as 
giving it a bath, kissing it, and singing it to sleep. 

Understanding. — Now it becomes entrancing to 
watch the increase of the baby's power of under- 
standing. By the seventh month he connects 
names with persons, he learns by imitation to do 
such tricks as waving his hand at parting, he 
watches things fall that he has dropped. A little 
later he understands what is meant by "no" and 
responds to brief commands of which he seems 
to recognize either certain words or their ac- 
companying suggestive gestures. By the ninth 
month he may learn the joyous game of peekaboo, 
understand some additional com.mands and per- 
form a few more manual accomplishments. 

During the tenth month Miss Shinn noted that 
her niece learned how to point as well as to look 
in a given direction, and used this gesture con- 
stantly as an indication of wants and an answer 
to questions. In the eleventh month Miss Shinn 
found that the little one understood eighty-four 
different words, both alone and in combinations. 
She was convinced too that she used at least 
three sounds to express her own feelings: one a 
sign for pointing, dist^overing, exulting, another 
an expression of refusal or protest, and a third an 
indication of desire for attention. 

Emotions. — The larger scope and more varied 
expression of emotions that comes by this time 
is natural. As Perez says: "In my opinion, a 
child of ten months who does not weep or cry 
at least four or five times a day, who is not 
amused, and who is not irritated, like a savage or ' 
a young animal, by a mere trifle, is lacking in 
intelligence, and will, no doubt, be lacking in 
cliaracter." 

We can not yet claim for the baby a moral 
sense, or any capacity for penitence. As for 
sympathy, while he may make imitative move- 
ments that look like our own adult ways of ex- 
pressing pity, v/e must confess that he is so far 
so absorbed in his own personal needs, and has 
so little experience by which to interpret the ex- 
periences of others, that we can not count much 
on it. 



Memory. — The enlarged scope of the intelligent 
life is shown before the year closes by memories 
that last for several days and are expressed by 
repeated actions or expectancy of repeated ex- 
periences, by imitations of the ways of elders and 
by an increasing delight in learning and in re- 
citing his little lessons. 

Once more we are indebted to Miss Shinn as 
she sums up the achievements of the year: 

"And so the story of the swift, beautiful year 
is ended, and our wee, soft, helpless baby has 
become this darling thing, beginning to toddle, 
beginning to talk, full of a wide-awake baby 
intelligence, and rejoicing in her mind and body ; 
communicating with us in a vivid and sufficient 
dialect, and overflowing with the sweet selfish- 
ness of baby coaxings and baby gratitude. 

"We are eager, as the little one herself is, to 
push on to new unfoldings; it is the high spring- 
time of babyhood — perfect, satisfying, beautiful." 

Summary 

The First Month. — The baby moves his eyes and 
head and seems to follow bright objects. He makes 
the simplest associations, which constitute a sort of 
"habit memory." He is sensitive to jars rather than 
to noises. He smiles in response to touch. He 
knows the difference between company and solitude, 
but is most responsive to his mother's face. 

The Second Month. — He likes the sense of mo- 
tion. He opens his eyes wider when outdoors. He 
is frightened now by hearing all sorts of sounds 
and begins to appreciate rhythm. His cries grow 
more varied. He moves in order to peer about. 
He uses his lips and tongue together. He is subject 
to a greater variety of feelings. Still, he sleeps 
most of the time. 

The Third Month. — His fingers grow active and 
he is busy in grasping. He searches about with his 
eyes and tries to sit up so as to see better. 

The Fourth Month. — He reaches for things. He 
notices alterations in the room. He is frightened at 
the dark. 

The Fifth Month. — This is the era for handling 
things. He prefers bright objects and begins to 
distinguish faces. 

The Sixth Month. — Now comes the transition 
between learning to use his senses and learning to 
use his body. Now he uses means for ends. He 
brings his toes to his mouth. Accidents lead to 
planned actions. Surprise and curiosity stimulate 
him to practice. He indulges in sign language and 
shows evidences of humane feeling. 

The Remainder of the Year. — This is the era of 
increasing locomotion. He pulls himself up, he 
climbs, he creeps, finally he walks. Now he controls 
bis full body, loves to be out of doors, and his range 
of vision is wider. He begins to imitate. He under- 
stands many words and he plays his first games. 
He really begins to think and reason, he feels larger 
emotions, but not yet emotions of sympathy and 
penitence. 



TPIE FIRST THREE MONTHS 



BY 



MRS. ALICE CORBIN SIES 



Note. — Here is the transcript of an actual record kept of a little boy's first three months by his 
mother. Although given without comment, it will be found most instructive, both as suggesting what 
to look for and in comparing it with the other two records that follow. 



The First Month 

1. Interesting things I noticed the first week: 
My first glimpse of baby 

What he accomplished the first day: breathing, 

crying, yawning, sneezing, etc. 
Usual position of arms and legs 
Expression of face 

Movement-plays : rolling of head, eyes, sucking, 
scratching. 

2. Second Week : 

What I noticed as the child endeavored to con- 
trol nursing; face, muscles, etc. 

Effect on baby of jars, ticking of watch, etc. 

Eyes not sensitive to bright light 

Enjoys erect position 

Thumb-sucking 

Smiling, an instinctive response to getting food 

Holds head toward light and people, with cling- 
ing stare. 

3. Third Week: 

What baby did in response to different sounds 
Baby's movements: turning of head, stiffening 

body, bracing feet 
Sight: eyes follow candle; open when nursing 
Hands : feel for breast and clasp with thumb 

or finger 
Cry more expressive ; new end sought. 

4. Fourth Week: 
Smile more constant 

Head lifted when supported 

Recognized direction of sound 

Eyes follow candle, rest on faces, fires, windows 

Displeasure at bath. 

The Second Month 

5. Fifth Week: 

Stopped incessant movement to listen to boat- 
whistles 

Crying from colic; what I did; how he cried 
next day to be held likewise 

Sensitiveness to sound when asleep 

Association of steps with attention (sense of 
comfort dimly felt). 



6. Sixth Week: 
■Response to name 

Turning head to meet my gaze 

Does not recognize breast and bottle by sight, 

but by touch 
Response to music when annoyed ; how I played 

different kinds. 

7. Seventh Week : 

Staring at red ribbon, colored ball, mirror 

Shoving and pushing movements in bed; turn- 
ing head from wall to me 

How I let him kick 

Held head erect a few seconds 

First enjoyment of bath 

Passing of his glance from me to grandma 

Voice-play after full meal; how I responded: 
his sounds 

Noticed breast ; groped for it 

Tensing body almost to erect position when 
supported 

Laughed out loud 

Crying when hungry, he stopped when held in 
feeding position 

Attentive to sudden changes in scenery; turns 
head about when carried from room to room. 

8. Eighth Week : 

Sound: Turning head toward piano; his re- 
sponse to music 

Sight : Stopped crying to look at electric light 

Muscular development : When back is sup- 
ported, he pulls himself erect on my lap; 
also holds head erect a few seconds without 
support 

Touch-plays : rubbing back, patting, etc. 

Lullabies 

Sleep and quiet : protection from hurry, stiinu- 
lating sights, sounds, colors, etc. 

Incessant movement of arms and legs in crib; 
keeps uncovered 

Seems to recognize father, mother and grand- 
mother 

Associates discomfort with lying d6wn, cries; 
comfort at being taken up. 



27 



38 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



The Third Month 

9. Ninth Week : 

Attention to loud sounds, even when nursing 
Coordination of hand and arm; extends fingers 

when nursing 
Attempt to rise in bath by pushing 
Sensations of temperature in water 
First nap out of doors, two months old 
Head held erect in wobbly fashion a good deal ; 

rests after 30 seconds 
Grasped coverlet and pulled away to see my 

face ; eye and hand work together 
Finger-play: opens and shuts fingers rhythmi- 
cally while nursing. 

10. Tenth Week: 

Sight: seemed to see his own image in mirror 

Stopped fretting to watch my movements in 
room ; cried when I passed out of sight 

Stops crying when music is played 

Nursing warm water from bottle is quieting 
and less stimulating than milk 

When crying at night for food he cries harder 
as soon as I approach; means of communi- 
cating 

Can direct fists to eyes; rubs eyes when sleepy 

Holds fist up and turns it around ; looking 
pleased 

Eye-play: his eye followed me from living 
room to third step (thirteen feet) 

Sound-plays and what they denote. 

11. Eleventh Week: 
Active touch-e.xploration 
Grasps my dress while nursing 

Extends hands and shuts them on bottle, feeling 

about it 
Preference for erect position grows 
Shows no surprise to be tossed in father's 

arms. (Danger of overstimulation in such 

play) 



Amount of sleep: all night (except when nurs- 
ing) and one and one-half hours after each 
feeding, except from 7 to 10 a. m. 

Showed signs of noticing new environment 
when taken into grandma's room for first 
time in month 

Muscular development : when laid on stomach 
raised body to creeping position on hands 

Continues to smile in engaging way 

Color of eyes changing from blue to brown 

Nursing-time : hands are released from clasp 
to fingers extended 

Taste : likes sugar 

Ability to hold images; before when bottle was 
removed to stop rapid feeding he cried ; 
gradually learning that bottle will return 

Voice-play : talks to me when first awake in 
morning. When a visitor sang to him he 
answered back similar tones 

Grasping: held rattle placed in hands two 
minutes. 

12. Twelfth Week: 
Response to color: gazed at red, orange, violet, 

and blue bows of crepe paper hung one by 

one over bed. Even stopped nursing 
Sample of voice-play with father : reward for 

new sounds 
Waking accompanied by gurgles and stretching 

when not hungry 
Hunger-cry 

Enjoys observing sights in sitting position 
Gazed at violet bow five feet away; I changed 

it to red and he appeared equally pleased 
Turning of head from wall to light opposite (a 

difficult muscular feat) and stared at red bow 
Shows pleasure in having legs rubbed (gurgles) 
Distinctly grasped my dress with fingers of 

right hand when nursing 
Enjoyment of being wheeled. 



MY BABY MONTH BY MONTH 



MRS. ANNA G. NOYES 



Thk following is the order in which, and the 
dates when, the activities were mastered : 

First Month: 

Lying on the stomach, he held up his head. 

Second Month : 

Held up head more steadily. 



Third Month: 
Smiled 
Laughed aloud. 

Fourth Month: 

Sat up alone for about two minutes 
Found his hands, after several days' trial 



* From "How I Kept My Bahy Well," by Anna G. Noyes, inililished hy Warwick & York, Baltimore. Ust-d liy permis- 
sion of Dr. Guy M. Whipple.'editor. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



39 



I held him up by his feet 

Reached out and caught hold of scales 

Held him suspended by his arms. 

Fifth Month: 

Laughed heartily when his toes were put into 
his mouth 

I held him up by his hands and he put his feet 
on my chest 

Rode cock-horse 

Greeted us with a smile and gurglings 

Tried to raise himself up by propping himself 
on one elbow. Later tried to pull himself up 
by pulling on the horizontal bar in his basket 

Again, lying on the bed, he grasped his father's 
fingers and after three attempts pulled him- 
self up to a sitting position 

Kicked hard against the bar (broom-handle) in 
his basket. Laughed heartily when I pinched 
and slapped. Holding, slapped. Holding on 
to a stick which I held out to him he raised 
himself up several times from a lying to a 
sitting position. 

Sixth Month : 

Sat alone for from three to five minutes 
First ride out of doors in carriage. Sat up 

straight for an hour. 
Pulled himself up whenever he could get hold 

of my fingers 
Kicked and splashed in his tub. 

Seventh Month: 
Lying on his back, he kicked a tin pan almost 

steadily for an hour 
Stood alone by his basket 
Seized every opportunity to try to pull himself 

up on his feet 
Pulled himself up alone to a standing position 
Moved, by rolling on the floor, a distance of 

three feet. 



Eighth Month: 

Took steps when supported 
Walked, by grasping moving things 
With the assistance of a chair, pulled himself 
up from a sitting position to a standing 
position. 

Ninth Month: 
Got up on his feet at every opportunity 
Managed his baby-tender very well 
Held his own weight, hanging from a stick or 
clothes line. 

Tenth Month: 
At home on his feet, but had to grasp something 
to keep his balance. 

Eleventh Month : 
Took three steps alone twice 
Took about fifty steps, holding my hand 
Took five steps, holding my apron 
Walked behind his carriage, pushing it 
Walked from one person to another a few feet 

away. Took several long walks while I held 

his jacket and he balanced himself with his 

clenched fists 
Walked to me (five feet away) when I was not 

expecting him to come. 

Twelfth Month: 

Walked all about, assisting himself by people 
or furniture, growing more and more ven- 
turesome, and having many hard tumbles 

Finally, while walking from another person to 
me, and being chased, in his haste he gave 
up his support and ran into my arms. After 
this, he walked other distances alone 

As he walks up to things, instead of grabbing 
hold tight for support, he only touches them 
lightly and walks on. 



LANDMARKS IN A BABY'S PROGRESS* 



BY 



MRS. HELEN Y. CAMPBELL 



It is well for the mother, at each weighing of the 
baby, to review in her mind the various factors 
which sum up the life of a healthy infant, and 
the several points in his progress. 

1. Is he gaining at least four ounces a week in 
weight ? 

2. Is his skin soft, pink, elastic, and fragrant ; 

* From "Practical Motherhood," by Helen Y. Campbell. 
Ushers, New York. 



and are his lips rosy, and cheeks a healthy pink 
color? 

3. Are his limbs, especially the thighs, plump 
and rounded? 

4. Are his movements vigorous, and does he 
use each of his limbs well ; and are his joints and 
back supple and freely and easily moved? 

Used by permission of Longmans, Green & Company, pub- 



40 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



5. Is he satisfied after he feeds? 

6. Does he retain all his feedings, except per- 
haps two or three mouthfuls, returned immedi- 
ately afterward? 

7. Does he cry seldom except when he is hun- 
gry ; and is he comfortable and free from con- 
stant wind or colic? 

8. Does he pass two or three very soft and 
smooth yellow stools in the twenty- four hours? 

9. Are his feet and hands always warm? 

10. Is his head dry, as a general rule? 

11. How much does he sleep by day and by 
night ? 

12. Is he good-natured and happy? 

Again: The order of the average healthy 
baby's achievements is usually something like the 
following, but some babies advance more quickly 
and others more slowly : 

During the first few weeks: The baby sleeps 
for a considerable part of the time more or less 
curled up. He stretches a good deal, and 
"strikes attitudes" with his head, limbs, and back, 
when awake and undressed. He shows most in- 
telligence and pleasure in association with his 
feedings. 

Second to Third Month: He makes the first 
attempts to hold up his head. He begins to kick 
freely and to wave his arms. He recognizes his 



mother's face and voice, and smiles. He follows 
a bright light or brilliant color or moving object 
with his eyes. 

Fourth to Fifth Month : He makes attempts to 
raise himself into a sitting position. He tries to 
grasp things. He turns his head around and tries 
to localize a sound. He often begins to recognize 
strangers and to distrust them. 

Sixth Month: He cuts his first tooth. He 
uses all his muscles and his voice very actively; 
dances up and down on his mother's lap, and 
sprawls and turns himself over on the bed. He 
laughs and crows loudly when he is pleased, and 
screams with rage and impatience when he is 
displeased. 

Seventh Month : He sits up alone. 

Eighth Month : He feels his feet, and may be- 
gin to creep. 

Twelfth Month: He imitates such actions as 
waving and kissing the hand, shaking the head, 
and pointing the finger. 

Fifteenth Month : He takes his first unaided 
steps. He expresses his wishes pretty clearly by 
gestures, and short sounds which are generally 
intended to represent words. 

Eighteenth Month : The soft spot on the top 
of his head (or fontanel) has quite disappeared. 
He uses little words. 



HOW TO FORECAST A CHILD'S FUTURE 



"Suppose that when he leaves school we wish to forecast 
a lafPs future. What shall we try to find out about him? 
No doubt we shall ask what he knows, but this would not 
be by any means the main thing. His skill would interest 
us, and so would the state of his health. But what we should 
ask, first and foremost, is this: Whom does he love? Whom 
does he admire and imitate? What does he care about? It 
is only when answers to these questions are satisfactory that 
we can think hopefully of his future; and it is only in so 
far as the school has tended to make the answers satisfactory 
that it deserves our approval." — R. H. Quick. 



SOME BEGINNINGS 

BY 

THE EDITORS 



During the first three months, the two important 
things a baby has to do are to eat and sleep. Dr. 
Griffith says that "up to the age of five or si.x 
months the baby should not be played with at all, 
and even later all playing before the hour for 
sleep must be avoided." The earliest habit to be 
formed by a baby is the sleep-habit. The ab- 
sence of stimulus when sleep is due is as neces- 
sary as its presence when the child is awake. Not 
only must the sleepy baby be protected from jars 
and sudden noises, but we must be careful that 
violent play does not interfere with his sleep and 
digestion. When we remember that the full limit 
of consecutive attention possible to a baby a year 
old is less than five minutes, we see how easy it is 
to overtire a young child. When a baby cries 
after he has been played with, it is a good sign 
that be has been overstrained. "The baby," says 
iVIrs. Washburne. "ought to be treated almost like 
a sprouting plant, and kept at first in darkness, 
warmth, and silence." 

I. Helping the Senses 

During the first five months a baby is chiefly 
learning to use his senses. 

It is Gesell * who teaches us that the sense of 
touch, the oldest of human experiences save pos- 
sibly hunger, is the first one in importance to de- 
velop. He quotes Helen Keller's poem, in which 
she says : 

"This daylight in ray heart. 
Thou blind, loving, all-prying touch. 
Thou openest the book of life to me." 

The first method of the mother in thus opening 
tlie book of life through touch is when she offers 



* Arnold Lucius Gesell and Beatrice Chandler Gesell, joint 
authors of "Normal Child and Primary Education." 



her baby the breast, touches lightly its cheeks, puts 
her fingers in its tiny grasp, cuddles its whole 
body, dresses and undresses it, gives it the bath, 
carries it from room to room on a pillow or in her 
arms. Thus she makes active those sense-tips 
that exist in lips and tongue and fingers and in 
the sensitive skin of the whole body. 

Next come the varied touch-sensations that are 
e.xperienced from objects — soft, hard, smooth, 
rough, light, heavy, warm, cold. Among the 
things for this purpose are smooth stones, sticks, 
spools, keys, spoons, tin dishes. 

Next comes the sense of sight. Mothers who 
are wise protect the eyes of their babies from 
glare and from bright lights, particularly at night, 
from the very beginning. While it is probably 
true that the baby has little sense of color before 
he is a year old, he is evidently well pleased with 
objects that glitter. 

II. Sense-Training 

Nothing educates the baby as does the human 
presence. "Here Nature herself has provided the 
best education. The mother, bending over the 
child with constant care, with instinctive prattle 
and gentle touch, is bringing the senses into in- 
telligent cooperation more swiftly and surely than 
any possible system of forms and motions dis- 
played before his uncomprehensive eye could do. 
It is a matter of easy observation that the baby 
who is left lying on the bed alone a great deal, 
no matter how well cared for physically, does not 
develop so brightly, and learn to use his senses 
so happily, as soon as the baby that is cooed over 
and played with." 

Soon special means are used. A bright object 
is hung above the cradle to induce reaching, a bell 
is sewed to the stocking to induce pulling, paper 



41 



42 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



is suspended above the feet to induce kicking. 
Paper is put within reach to he mussed or torn, 
and in tlie latter half of the year the old games 
of "This Little Pig Went to Market," "Creep 
Mouse" and "Pat a Cake," help develop the con- 
sciousness of the whole body, the sensations of 
touch and sight, and the general joyfulness of life. 

The early sensitiveness of a baby to musical 
sounds and to harsh noises suggests that we may 
do something to educate the sense of hearing and 
even that of rhythm and melody during the first 
year. Even babies a month old are soothed by 
soft chords upon the piano and by lullabies ; they 
respond by lively muscular actions before they 
are two months old, and it is probable that the 
preference for music to noise may begin through 
the proper environment in this period. In the 
meantime, things that rattle and ring and squeak, 
like a bunch of keys, a bell, a baby's rattle, and a 
rubber doll, but nothing that makes a violent con- 
cussion, are enjoyed in turn. The child himself 
soon likes to beat with his spoon on his tin plate 
or to drop metal things for the sake of hearing 
them strike the floor. 

The senses are educated not separately but to- 
gether. As the parts of the brain become con- 
nected and the different sense-perceptions be- 
come associated, we have the task of helping 
the baby to use eyes, ears, and hands together. 
Aside from putting a variety of objects within 
the baby's reach, our duty here is very much that 
of letting him alone. As Kirkpatrick * tells us : 

"As soon as he can move his hands he should 
not be amused wholly by what others do, but 
rather by what he can do, to objects and with 
them. Others may do things that lead the child 
to discover new possibilities in objects, but they 
should not long at a time manipulate objects for 
his amusement. By so doing they interfere with 
his own educative play-activity and hinder his 
finding out the real qualities of objects and his 
own powers in relation to them. The principle of 
novelty should be made much of at this time. 
None of the child's playthings should be with him 
all of the time, but those not in use should be 
placed out of his sight for awhile, as soon as he 
loses interest in them, then restored to him again 
when they will arouse his interest anew." 

Some of the articles which Johnson names as 
very helpful in learning the ways to use means 
for ends in the exercise of a baby's sense-powers 
are a celluloid bail, rubber animals, boxes, bottles, 
blocks. Says Mrs. Washburne: 

"The right toys are those that the baby digs 
out for himself, from such of the household 



^ See footnote on page 35. 



utensils and belongings as can be spared for his 
use. A bit of chain, some old dominoes, a pair of 
scissors stuck in an empty spool, a lot more spools, 
some cards, an old magazine that he can tear, a 
biscuit-cutter, some little tin dishes, an old clean 
purse tasting of leather, a small wooden box with 
a cover that slides in and out — such are the things 
that he picks out for himself and that a wise 
mother will preserve for him. If she provides a 
table or bureau drawer in which they can be kept, 
and then lets him pull out the drawer and rum- 
mage to his heart's content, she will find him 
pretty well satisfied with his toys. 

"Out of doors, nothing is so good as a sand- 
pile with a pail and shovel. The baby who can 
only sit up when he is propped will love to sit in 
the warm sand, in a little nest, and fill and empty 
his pail, and ply his little spade with wabbly fin- 
gers, daily growing stronger with exercise." 

III. Assisting Body-Control 

The latter half of the year is largely spent in 
getting control of the body and its members. 
Adults may be of much judicious help here. When 
the baby begins to indicate by pushing and pull- 
ing and the attempt to lift his head, the first im- 
pulse toward bodily control, the mother must sup- 
port the head and the back, offer her fingers to 
the baby's grasp as handles and her lap as lever- 
age for the tiny feet and knees. Especially is 
kicking to be encouraged. 

Creeping is encouraged by seeing that the 
diapers do not bind the knees, and all the motions 
toward bodily control are facilitated if the baby 
is allowed a little time daily, in a warm space free 
from draughts, to scramble naked. The climb- 
ing instinct is believed to be important and is to be 
encouraged, of course with watchful backing. 

There is no hurry to make a baby walk, and 
he should seldom support his body upon his little 
legs until he learns to do so himself. Says Miss 
Shinn : "None of these movements should be 
urged and hastened. The baby should not be al- 
lowed to bear his own weight, in sitting, standing, 
or walking, till he is unmistakably able to; nor 
is it desirable to urge a feat of balancing upon 
a timid child, even when he is plainly capable of 
it, lest he get fixed associations of fear with it, 
and be actually held back in progress. But where 
a child has become discouraged, or has been held 
back a long time by timidity, a little cautious coax- 
ing past the sticking-point may be the wisest 
thing." 

Some of the other appropriate activities are 
splashing in the water, tearing, pulling, pushing, 
rocking, "playing" the piano, lifting lightly, and 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



43 



toward the close of the year nodding and making 
simple gestures. 

IV. The Emotional Life 

During the first year the emotional life of the 
baby develops with his senses, but in such a 
primitive fashion that it is hard from our adult 
standpoint always to interpret it clearly. The 
baby's feelings seem to be of about three sorts. 
There are pleasant feelings, when he is comfort- 
able, has what he wants, or is enjoying himself 
experimenting. There are unpleasant feelings, 
when he is uncomfortable, has not what he wants, 
or receives a shock of fright. There are also 
times when he is suddenly acted upon by a number 
of stimuli at once, to which his response is that of 
paralyzed astonishment. The way the baby tries 
to tell us how he feels is by his instinctive acts 
and his cries. The mother soon learns to dis- 
criminate the cry of fright, of pain, of disappoint- 
ment, of loneliness, and she finds out, through 
her reading and experience, how to localize 
bodily distresses. 

In general, the mother endeavors to adjust cir- 
cumstances so that the 'child will in the main have 
pleasant feelings, but she can not always do so. 
There will be enough internal disturbances and 
mental disappointments so that every baby will do 
every day the amount of hearty crying which is 
requisite to expand the lungs. 

V. Habit-Forming 

At this point comes in the necessity of establish- 
ing, by discipline, habits that shall be healthful 
both to the body and the future morals of the 
child. Says Kirkpatrick : 

"The mother, like the trainer of animals, should 
do things in the same way every time, that there 
may be the same signs as a condition or signal, 
when the child is being fed, dressed, or put to 
sleep, and thus he will readily form habits of 
having things done to him, and of doing the right 
thing at the right time without any fuss. 

"More complex habits that are really elemen- 
tary acts of politeness, such as waiting quietly 
for food or to be taken up, may also be formed 
if care is used. If the expression 'in a minute' 
is employed, and is at first followed very quickly 
by food or attention, a beginning is made and the 
time of waiting may gradually be prolonged. If, 
however, the interval is too long at first, crying 
may ensue and the expression become a signal that 
starts the child to crying for food or attention, 
instead of waiting quietly for it. The child may 
also be taught to give up things quietly and to 
allow himself to be taken where one wishes, or he 



may learn to make a scene in all such cases. He 
is not consciously either good or bad during 
this period, any more than are animals, but he is 
forming habits that will have important effects 
upon the conscious self that develops during the 
next period, and that will be likely to have some 
influence upon his ultimate character." 

If we were asked what is the one virtue for a 
year-old baby, we should answer. The forming 
of right habits. 

A word ought to be said here about the matter 
of sleep-habits in particular. The question arises 
as to the relation of sleep and waking from sleep 
to the whole emotional life of the child. There is 
often a marked resistance on the part of babies 
to embark on the voyage to dreamland. This is 
no doubt partly due to the irresistible desire of 
father, upon his return at night, to frolic with 
his child. It seems to be partly explained by the 
fact that the baby's nervous system often responds 
to fatigue with fretfulness rather than drowsiness. 
Not until late in the first year is there often any 
terror of the dark, but many babies are made rest- 
less by the nearness of too much light and noise. 
In general, it seems best for the general welfare 
of the child that the day should close with a 
diminishing of excitement and play, cadencing 
with quieting employments or attitudes that lead 
to the gates of slumber. Most babies during their 
first year, however, require an individual method 
of being put to sleep. Doctors are relenting 
somewhat from their dictum as to "no rocking," 
but they are as stern as ever as to "no churning" 
of the infant body. 

"Froebel," says Mrs. Washburne, "makes a 
strong plea for the right of the child to have 
his own mother put him to sleep. He says that 
the child's last impression on falling to sleep, and 
his first on awaking, should be of a loving voice 
and face. Thus will the tender emotions be 
developed in him, and his power of affectionate 
response be increased. This accords well with the 
modern understanding of the law of suggestion, 
which has made us aware that the brain, on going 
to sleep, is in a relaxed and impressionable condi- 
tion, and that impressions received then, work into 
the very centers of being and later produce their 
inevitable effect. On waking, too, the brain is 
similarly impressionable, only in this state its im- 
pressions tend to bear fruit in conscious acts. If 
we wish, then, to have our children loving and 
sympathetic, their last impressions on going to 
•sleep must be of love and sympathy. If we wish 
them to be peaceful and contented, they must fall 
asleep in quiet bliss. The instinct which leads 
a mother to pray over her sleeping child, and to 
kiss him as he sleeps, is a true instinct, implanted 



K.N.— 5 



44 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



in her heart by the Father who sees that His little 
ones receive what they need." 

Miss Shinn believes that the manner of waking 
from sleep is more important and neglected than 
the manner of going to sleep. As soon as the 
fourth month, evidences of panic upon arousing 
have been noted ; by the tenth month these have 
been interpreted as the evidence of a struggle to 
get back to self-consciousness, and many believe 
that some vague sort of dream occasionally haunts 
even the infant's mind. Here, evidently, a sooth- 
ing and interpreting presence is indicated, and 
Miss Shinn thinks the mother does more to win 
her baby's love 'by being always at hand when he 
awakes than by any other single act. 

VI. The Baby's Sociability 

Although a baby does not seem to care whether 
we approve of his own conduct or not, he is cer- 
tainly sensitive to ours. A mother's irritated dis- 
position will reflect itself within a few moments 
in the behavior of her child. Babies are usually 
better off if they are not played with too much, 
but most babies suffer from not being talked to 
enough. It is not necessary that they should be 
able to understand what we say to them, but they 
seem to be pleasantly stimulated if we talk while 
we play with them. As the old nurses used to say, 
"They want to be noticed." 

The sociability of a baby has a definite educa- 
tional purpose. It helps him to learn by imitating. 
It seems a fair generalization to say that during 
the first half of the year the baby learns chiefly 
by trial-and-success and during the second half 
by trial-and-success coupled with imitation. 

It is a moot question whether affection is an 
emotion that appears during the first year. Scien- 
tists may say, no; but mothers will persist in say- 
ing, yes. The .tenderness of a baby no doubt 
arises in selfishness, as the result of being cared 
for, and it demands innumerable hostages of 
proof. But who can doubt that love is always 
contagious, and that mother-love soon finds its 
reward in clinging hands that express a heart, 
little but overflowing? 

VII. The Baby's Outlook at the End of 
his First Year 

The studies that have been made of individual 
babies show that by the time a child is a year old, 
his world consists of a space with a radius of about 
a hundred feet from his eyes, within which he has " 
examined the shape and size of all the objects • 
within reach, to which he has brought himself 
in contact by creeping, walking, or climbing; that 
he has learned to distinguish himself from other 
people ; that he knows a few people by name, and ■ 
can understand simple commands and can com- 



municate by simple calls of his own ; that he has 
considerable memory and the elements of imagina- 
tion. He has, if he has been trained to regular 
habits and to response to command, a pleasant 
docility, while his will is manifest in his growing 
persistence of action and in an occasional resist- 
ance of adult authority, sometimes the expression 
of physical discomfort, sometimes of self -assertion. 
It will be safe to quote Miss Shinn's advice that 
"The secret of happy and wholesome develop- 
ment in the early years seems to be mainly in giv- 
ing the largest possibility of free action" if we 
remember the qualification that she gives: "The 
remarkable hatred of restraint, the intense joy in 
free activity, the busy energy with which, when 
left to himself, the child would pursue his own 
education — all show Nature, up to a certain point, 
doing better with the development of senses, 
muscle, and mind than any outsider could do. 
. . . To secure to a child the largest freedom 
of activity possible is a different thing from sim- 
ply letting him run, uncared for ; it sometimes 
involves more trouble than restricting him nar- 
rowly; he must be companioned, cooperated with, 
'lived with,' incessantly. But the results are 
worth it." 

VIII. Summary 

What a Baby Should Learn the First Half 
Year. — The baby chiefly learns during the first year 
to use his senses. The first and most important is 
that of touch. The next in importance is that of 
sight. 

Helping the Senses. — He must learn to use his 
senses not only separately, but together. In order 
to do this we must help him, especially by stimulating 
him to see what he can do rather than to allow him 
to be completely passive. 

Assisting Body-Control. — The baby learns to 
handle his members successively. In this process he 
must be unhindered so long as he does not hurt him- 
self. He must not be hastened, because if he is nor- 
mal, he will get control as soon as he is strong 
enough. Parents must devise helpful activities to 
exercise the various parts of the body. 

The Emotional Life. — Most of the baby's feelings 
are pleasant, and, naturally, parents wish them all to 
be so, but sometimes the little child must learn, for 
his own protection, to do or suffer things which are 
not immediately pleasant. 

Habit-Forming. — In order to help the baby form 
good habits we must regularly do the same things 
every time in the same way. He must even form 
the habit of learning to wait. Regularity in sleep 
and waking is of the greatest importance. 

The Baby's Outlook. — By the end of the first 
year the baby sees a radius of one hundred feet from 
himself, within which he examines all objects he can 
reach ; he learns to know other people, to understand 
simple commands and to communicate in a simple 
way. He has considerable memory and the elements 
of imagination. He is pleasantly docile, but his 
growing will is manifest. The great thought in his 
education at this time is that of free action. This 
does not mean that he is to be uncared for. but that 
he is to be wisely guided in every safe self-activity. 



PLAYS AND GAMES FOR THE FIRST YEAR* 



LUELLA A. PALMER 

Note. — The little plays and games of childhood seem very trivial, yet it is through these that a 
child learns many things about his world and gains control over his own body. Mother-love is con- 
stantly devising ways to make baby laugh and grow strong. The plays and games here outlined for 
different years (other articles by Miss Palmer follow) suggest ways in which the mother's instinct- 
ive responses that give 4ier child joy may change as he grows and help him to develop. 



Sense-Plays 

Baby sense-plays are very simple. They con- 
sist of the mere activities of seeing, hearing, 
touching; yet they are very important, because it 
is at this period that the most rapid progress is 
made in sense-train-ing. 

Fumbling hands should be supplied with articles 
smooth and pleasantly rough, soft, and even hard 
though light, like a celluloid ball. (Care must be 
taken with celluloid toys, as they are very in- 
flammable.) These may be fastened by cords to 
the edge of the baby basket or top of the carriage, 
or to the edge of the stocking, so that they will be 
within easy reach to be grasped and pulled. 

Although direct sunlight or bright light of any 
kind should be kept out of the child's eyes, as 
soon as he seems to notice a candle it may be 
moved a few times from side to side to induce 
him to follow it with his eyes. A shiny object 
such as a watch may be held within reach until 
the little one becomes proficient in grasping it; 
then it can be slowly swung. This is training 
in marksmanship as much as the later shooting 
at a target ; it requires coordination of eye and 
hand, and also perseverance. 

Different pleasing sounds with bell or piano 
can be made and repeated when a child begins to 
show a tendency to pay attention to them. Adults 
must devise a patent muffler for their ears, as a 
baby should be allowed to pound with a spoon or 
other object upon wood, tin, or some resounding 
substance. Opportunities might be given to notice 
contrasts. Occasionally, when baby is striking the 
floor with his rattle, push a pie-plate within range 
and watch the sudden attention. 

Movement-Plays 

A little baby should pull and push, scratch and 
tear, or catch a swinging object. 

Many rhythmic movements, of the limbs or 
whole body, delight baby and help in strengthening 



his muscles and mind. "The child's first practice 
in the direction of future walking is found in 
kicking, which is so essential to muscular de- 
velopment." -j- 

Froebel's "Play with the Limbs" X is well 
known. In the picture which accompanies it is 
seen a mother bracing her hands against the 
kicking feet of the laughing baby. The mother's 
response makes baby feel her sympathy; the tones 
of her voice convey it too as she sings or chants : 

"So this way and that, 
With a pat-a-pat-pat. 
And one, two, three, 
For each little knee ;" § 

or the well-known one : 

"Shoe the horse and shoe the mare, 
Let the little colt go bare. 
Tread the grass and tread the ground, 
Soon he'll scamper round and round." 

Kicking against a newspaper gives a double 
pleasure from the exercise of the legs and the re- 
sulting sound. 

For exercising the arms, chant : 

"Pump, pump, pump, 
Water, water, come. 
Here a rush, there a gush, 
Done, done, done." 

For turning the whole arm round : 

"Pinwheel twirl around so fast. 
Twirl, twirl, twirl." 

Let the whole body sway down and up: 



# 



Down — Up 
Repeat many times and finish with: 



i 



-4fi ^ 



or 

Down 



* Rearranged and revised by Miss Palmer for this book from her "Play Life in the First Eight Years," by special 
permission of the publishers, Ginn & Company, Boston. 

t Groos, "The Play of Man," page 79. t Susan E. Blow, ".Songs and Games of Froebel's Mother Play," page 3. 

§ Emily Huntington Miller. 

45 



46 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Ball-Plays * 

Baby's earliest plaything is the ball. It can 
easily be grasped with both hands, fits the shape 
of the hands, and presents no hurtful corners. 
These first balls should be of rubber, as they 
should be soft, easily sterilized, and not harmful 
when carried to the mouth. Harder balls, wooden 
or celluloid, might be provided when an older per- 
son is near to protect the baby from the result of 
the spasmodic motions of hand and arm. The play 
of grasping strengthens the muscles and gains 
added interest if the object resists. 

A bright-colored ball, swung slowly at the end 
of a string, incites a baby to follow the rhythmic 



motion with his eyes, and this aids him to gain 
control over them. Care must be taken not to 
strain the eyes by either too rapid or too pro- 
longed exercise. 

Attach a white celluloid ball by a string to a 
soft-toned bell and place it within baby's reach. 
The child by accident may grasp the ball and will 
instinctively pull it toward his mouth. This action 
will ring the bell. After a few repetitions baby 
listens for the results. When this little play is 
well learned, two strings may be provided, with 
white and red balls, only one of which rings the 
bell. The child will be surprised when no sound 
follows pulling the string. After a few trials he 
will learn to select the right ball. 



FINGER-PLAYS AND OTHER ACTION-PLAYS 



BY 

THE EDITORS 



A GOOD deal has been said in kindergarten litera- 
ture about finger-plays. By finger-plays is meant, 
not plays which involve the handling of things 
with the fingers, but plays by means of which the 
child learns to control his fingers and to imitate 
human activhies.t In other words, they are 



* Long before baby could talk she knew the little play 
for the fingers, "Here's a Ball for Baby.'* 

"Here's a ball for Baby, 
Big and soft and round! 
Here is Baby's hammer — 
O, how he can pound* 
Here is Baby's music — 
Clapping, clapping so! 
Here are Baby's soldiers. 
Standing in a row! 

"Here's Baby's trumpet, 
Toot-too-too. Too-too! 
Here's the way that Baby 
Plays at 'Peep-a-boo!' 
Here's a big umbrella — 
Keep the Baby dry! 
Here's the Baby's cradle — 
Rock-a-baby by!" 

— Emilie Poulssott. 

The ball is made with the two hands rounded together; 
the hammer, by doubling up the hands and pounding, one 
on top of the other. Baby's soldiers are made by holding 
all the fingers up straight. The hands are clapped together 
for the music, and doubled up, one in front of the other, 
for a trumpet. For pecp-a-boo the fingers are spread in 
front of the eyes so that baby can see between them. The 
umbrella is made by placing the palm of one hand on the 
index finger of the other, and the cradle by putting the 
two hands together, insides of the palms touching and outer 
sides open. 

As I said the words of this little play and made the 
motions, baby would try to make the motions, too. She 
also knew "Five Little Squirrels." "Good Mother Hen." 
and "Little Squirrel Living Here." Of course, she could 
not play them perfectly, but she loved them and wanted me 
to play them for her over and over. 

— Mrs. Isabel S. Wallace. 

t To illustrate how Froebel's philosophy helps the mother 
to train her child, let us consider the pat-a-cake play. You 



plays for mental awakening. For example, when 
a mother takes hold of the separate fingers of the 
child's hand and repeats the familiar rhyme which 
begins, "This is the mother, good and dear/' al- 
most any child will spontaneously, after its repeti- 
tion, hold up the other hand. The child seems to 

smile and say, "Why, all mothers play pat-a-cake with their 
babies; that is nothing new." Yes, mothers have played 
pat-a-cake for ages and ages, but if they want to know why 
they play it, let them turn to Froebel, who points out that 
the reason the little game is so widely known is because 
"Simple mother-wit never fails to link the initial activities 
of the child with the every-day life about him." He also 
says: 

"The bread or, butter still, the little cake which the child 
likes so well, he receives from his mother; the mother in 
turn receives it from the baker. So far, so good. We 
have found two links in the great chain of life and service. 
Let us beware, however, of making the child feel that these 
links complete the chain. The baker can bake no cake if 
the miller grinds no meal; the miller can grind no meal if 
the farmer brings him no grain; the farmer can bring no 
grain if his field yields no crop; the field can yield no crop 
if the forces of nature fail to work together to produce it; 
the forces of nature could not conspire together were it not 
for the all-wise and beneficent Power who incites them to 
their predetermined ends." 

It is because we mothers have felt perhaps dimly and un- 
consciously the lesson which the pat-a-cake play teaches of 
dependence on one another, and the gratitude each owes to 
all, that we have played this little game from ancient times. 

I start to play pat-a-cake with my baby when he is six 
months old. It aflfords him great satisfaction to exercise his 
arms and to direct his movements so that both little dimpled 
hands meet together. When he is about eighteen months 
or two years old I begin to show him the picture of pat-a- 
cake found in Froebel's "Mother-Play." Through this means 
I gradually and easily lead him to see that "for his bread 
he owes thanks not only to his mother, to the baker, the 
miller, the farmer, but also and most of all to the Heavenly 
Father, who, through the instrumentality of dew and rain, 
sunshine and darkness. Winter and Summer, causes the earth 
to bring forth the grain." 

It is only after having studied the picture thoroughly 
and read the chapter on pat-a-cake in the "Mottoes and 
Commentaries" and committed to memory the verses and 
tune in the "Songs and Music" of Froebel's "Mother-Play," 
that I am ready to teach pat-a-cake to my baby; and, as I 
have shown, I do not teach it all at once, but refer to it 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



47 



crave the repetition of these sensations in all his 
fingers and to desire to identify each finger from 
his brain center. Again, wlien the mother repeats 
the rhyme, "This pig went to market," and touches 
the toes, the child not only desires this exercise 
for both feet, but also bends over and grasps his 
own toes, thus connecting the sense of touch in 
the hands with that of the feet. 

Many finger-plays are given in Volume I of the 
Bookshelf. There are also several among the 
exercises for the second year in this Manual. 

There are simple nursery plays, given herewith, 
in which especially fathers may e.xercise their 
little ones. Each of these plays develops not only 
the child's muscles, as the father plays more 
vigorously than the mother, but also has its own 
special influence upon the emotions and will. In 
tossing-plays, for example, "the baby is scarcely 
out of the father's hands before he is caught and 
held in them again ; but in that one instant's sepa- 
ration, that one instant's aloneness, the baby feels 
the strong shock of surprise, if not of fear, and 
the father must be careful always to follow this 
shock immediately with the comforting clasp of 
the baby in his strong arms so as to reassure him. 
If he does this, not only will the baby's joy in 
the play be increased, but a feeling of trust in 
his father's strength be aroused, and peace in his 
father's enfolding love will be fostered in the 
baby's heart." In jumping-plays the father puts 
the baby on some relatively high place, and stand- 
ing at a suitable distance with open arms, invites 
the child to jump into them. Such jumping-plays 
foster, as do the tossing-plays, the germs of faith 
and trust in just the small degree that is effica- 
cious in babyhood. Picka-back plays encourage 
bodily activity, furnish repeated mental impres- 
sions, appeal to the latent power of attention, and 
give opportunities, as the child throws his arms 
about the father's neck, for expressions of love. 
Romping on the floor gives opportunity for 
startled surprise, which yields immediately to 
laughter and trustful love. 

A few "Riding Songs for Father's Knee" are 
given herewith. Additional ones, together with 

again and again, perhaps when we are out working in the 
garden on a sunny day, or in the house watching the rain. 
When my child is old enough to be interested in such 
things, we go into a bakery shop, and to the astonishment 
of the baker ask if we may see his ovens. We often pass 
a mill, and I tell my child that this is the place where the 
farmer brings his grain. Thus the lesson of pat-a-cake goes 
on for a long time before it is first played in babyhood. It 
teaches us to be ever thankful, and baby learns to say 
"Thank you, dear mamma," "Thank you, dear baker," 
"Thank you, dear God." 

There are many other songs and games in Froebel's 
"Mother-Play" which I give to my children long before the 
kindergarten age. In all of these they take the greatest 
delight. I begin early to sing the songs and play the finger- 
games which nourish the instinct of love for the members 
of the family and affection for animals. 

— Mrs. Princess B. Trowbridge, 



many finger-plays and other action-plays and ac- 
tion-songs, will be found in the Boys and Girls 
Bookshelf, Volume I, pages 1-22, and Volume 
VI. pages 15-32. 

Riding Songs for Father's Knee 

To Market Ride the Gentlemen 

To market ride the gentlemen, 

So do we, so do we ; 
Then comes the country clown, 

Hobbledy gee, Hobbledy gee : 
First go the ladies, nim, nim, nim : 
Xext come the gentlemen, trim, trim, trim : 
Then come the country clowns, gallop-a-trot. 

Ride a Cock-Horse 

Ride a cock-horse to Charing Cross, 
To see a young lady jump on a white horse. 
With rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes, 
She shall have music wherever she goes. 



Here Goes My Lord 

Here goes my lord — 
A trot ! a trot ! a trot ! a trot ! 

Here goes my lady — 
A canter ! a canter ! a canter ! a canter ! 

Here goes my young master — 
Jockey-hitch ! jockey-hitch ! jockey-hitch ! 
jockey-hitch ! 

Here goes my young miss — 
An amble ! an amble ! an amble ! an amble ! 

The footman lags behind. 
And goes gallop, a gallop, a gallop, 
to make up his time. 



How They Ride 

This is the way the ladies ride — 
Saddle-a-side, saddle-a-side ! 

This is the way the gentlemen ride — 
Sitting astride, sitting astride ! 

This is the way the grandmothers ride — 
Bundled and tied, bundled and tied ! 

This is the way the babykins ride — 
Snuggled inside, snuggled inside ! 

This is the way, when they are late — 
They all fly over a five-barred gate ! 

rWilliam Canton. 



w 



48 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



A Farmer Went Trotting 

A farmer went trotting upon his gray mare; 

Bumpety, bimipety. bump ! 
With his daughter behind him, so rosy and fair; 

Lumpety, lumpety, lump ! 

A raven cried croak ! and they all tumbled down ; 

Bumpety, bumpety, bump ! 
The mare broke her knees, and the farmer his 
crown ; 

Lumpety, lumpety, lump ! 

The mischievous raven flew laughing away; 

Bumpety, bumpety, bump ! 
And vowed he would serve them the same the 
next day ; 

Lumpety, lumpety, lump ! 

Here We Go 

Here we go up, up, up ! 
Here we go down, down, down ! 
Here we go backwards and forwards 
And here we go round and round ! 

To Market, To Market 

To market, to market, 
To buy a plum bun ; 
Home again, home again. 
My journey is done. 



Ride Away, Ride Away 

Ride away, ride away, 

Johnny shall ride, 
And he shall have pussy-cat 

Tied to one side ; 
And he shall have little dog 

Tied to the other. 
And Johnny shall ride 

To see his grandmother. 



Up To THE Ceiling 

Lip to the ceiling, down to the ground. 
Backward and forward, round and round ; 
Dance, little baby, and mother will sing. 
With the merry chorus, ding, ding, ding ! 

A Good Child 

H you are a good child. 

As I suppose you be. 
You'll never laugh nor never smile 

When tickled on the knee. 

See-Saw Sacradown 

See-saw sacradown. 
Which is the way to London town? 
One foot up and the other down, 
And that is the way to London town. 



Nothing is surer than that a certain gayety of heart and 
mind constitute the most wholesome climate for young chil- 
dren. "The baby whose mother has not charmed him in his 
cradle with rhyme and song has no enchanting dreams; he 
is not gay and he will never be a great musician," so rims 
the old Swiss saying. — Kate Douglas Wiggin. 




sil K Sgjgi^^BgF 







SUMMARY AND FORECAST 



GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH TOM AND SARAH 



WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 



"What are you going- to name the baby?" Frank 
Howard's father-in-law asked him, soon after he 
learned of the expected arrival. 

"Tom, if it's a boy," Howard responded 
promptly; "Sarah, if it's a girl. Tom for you, sir, 
and Sarah for my mother." 

"Thank you both for the compliment," said Mr. 
Spencer, with a pleased smile. "As a grand- 
father, I must try to live up to it." 

Mr. Spencer was out of town when the good 
news came. 

"It's a boy!" was the happy word that he got 
by long distance telephone. 

"Good !" he exclaimed. 

"Wait !" cried the voice of his son-in-law. 
"Better yet — it's a girl, too. Tom and Sarah, if 
you please." 

"Hurrah for twins!" called the excited grand- 
father, as he ran downstairs to tell his wife. 
"The more the merrier." 

Of course Frank Howard was proud, very 
proud. At the bank, in the hotel corridor, on 
the street, he received a good many congratula- 
tions. "It's only reflected glory," he confessed, 
as he looked fondly at his wife, so girlish, so 
happy, among the pillows, with the tiny mites, one 
beribboned with blue and one with pink, asleep 
side by side in the adjoining crib. "Hereafter 
I expect to be known merely as 'Tom and Sarah 
Howard's father.' By the way, they're not so 
little, after all. The nurse tells me that seven 
pounds apiece isn't at all bad for twins, and how 
tall do you think they are, Mary?" 

"Why, they're not tall, at all, at all, are they, 
Frank?" asked Mary, who has a bit of the endear- 
ing Irish. 

"Twenty inches, madam, if you please, apiece," 
said Frank, with pride, "or forty for the pair." 



"How in the world did you find out?" Mary 
inquired. 

"Well, it was a bit bothersome to get them out 
straight — they seem curled up so, but that's what 
they answered to the tapeline. And I found out 
another thing, too." 

"What is it?" 

"They're all out of proportion." 

"Oh, Frank! Is it anything serious?" 

"No, dear ; the nurse says we're all born so, but 
it was a new one to me. You remember in col- 
lege I used to do the measuring in the gym. You 
know, a man's head is about one-seventh of his 
whole length. But I noticed right off that these 
youngsters of ours, undressed, looked quite 
different. Why, their heads are a quarter the 
length of their bodies. Some 'big head,' all right. 
And they're really funny altogether. No necks 
— unfinished noses^ — legs like fins and " 

"I thuik my babies are just beautiful !" Mary 
exclaimed, almost with a sob. 

Frank put up his tape-measure, seated himself 
on the bed and put his arm gently around her. 
"So do I — ^honest. But I confess, they look to me 
a bit unfinished." 

Is There a Father-Instinct? 

Frank was really mightily interested. Maybe 
the instinct of fatherhood is not so prompt and 
potent as that of motherhood, which waits with 
outstretched arms the coming to harbor of these 
little ships of life. But pride does something, and 
curiosity does something more. And one Sunday 
when Frank was sitting by the window, with the 
afternoon sunlight sifting across, with a baby 
snuggled against each arm, he felt a thrill run- 
ning through his whole being that he had never 



49 



50 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAI, 



known before, and tears were running down his 
cheeks, — tears that he could not wipe away. 

"I thought my arm was asleep," he said, when 
his wife found him so, "but I guess it was — 
something else." 

Still, like all fathers, Frank felt a bit left out. 
He did not seem to be as much needed as before. 
The babies depended wholly upon Her — they did 
not really need him at all. And all those tender 
and delicate operations in the way of care, he 
knew how clumsily he performed them. And 
as for understanding what was in those little 

minds "I can weigh and measure them and 

buy the little shoes and teething-rings," he said one 
day, jealously. "In fact, the mathematics of babies 
is about all I'm good for. How in the world do 
you know what to do for them? You seem to 
understand just what they want whenever they 
cry, but all their cries sound about alike to me. 
Is it mother-instinct?" 

"Partly, maybe," said Mary, thoughtfully. "The 
nurse has told me a lot, and both our mothers are 
so helpful. But these little ones of ours are too 
precious to be brought up by impulse and hearsay. 
I determined as soon as we were married that if 
my profession was going to be that of a wife and 
mother I would have the tools for it, just as you 
have for the law. You used to laugh at my 
'library,' Frank, but I tell you it has saved my 
life and that of our babies already. I am not as 
wise as you are" — (Did Mary really mean it?) 
— "but I know enough not to bring up my children 
by guess-work." 

Mary's Library 

They moved together over to the little case of 
books that stood beside the bassinet. Frank took 
down one of the dignified volumes, noted the 
pencil-marks in the margin, and then turned re- 
spectfully to the index. 

"Not so very exciting reading," he commented, 
"but it looks to be all there, and where you can 
find it." 

"You spoke about crying," Mary continued. 
"Do you know there are at least eleven reasons 
why a baby cries?" 

"Eleven at once, do you mean?" Frank asked, 
with a grin. "I can well believe it." 

"Look here," Mary commanded. She took up 
a notebook and opened to one of its pages. "I 
found this article so helpful that I have made 
from it for myself a 'Crying Chart,' and I turn 
to it a dozen times a day." 

"What is this book, anyhow? I never saw it 
before, did I ? 
, "No, and if you dare to laugh at it, you're 



never going to see it again. It is my Baby 
Record." 

After Frank had read every word carefully, he 
said, with conviction: "Mary, I'll have to hand it 
to you; if I prepared all my cases as carefully 
as you have these two, I'd win them all. Why, 
this is superb ! You've got it all down. Whose 
idea was this — yours?" 

"No, I got that out of my 'library,' too. I don't 
think it is very scientific, but I did want to know 
just how they were coming along. I thought I 
would better understand what was coming if I 
had set something down to go by." 

"You're just right, my dear! How interesting 
it all is ! It must have been a lot of work. Do 
you write something down every day?" 

"Not every day, but when I get time I try to 
write it up for the days I missed. You see, it is 
a sort of diary, but it is more than that — it is a 
study, too. Every little while I take some one 
fact that I am interested in, go over my record, 
and make a summary that will try to show just 
how the children are coming along in that par- 
ticular field." 

"I don't believe I understand," said Frank. 

How Mary Made Her Records 

"Let me read you something. Our five senses 
are important, aren't they?" 

"I should think they are!" 

"Here is my little study of the way our young- 
sters are- developing in this one respect: 

" 'The first of our babies' senses that I noticed was 
the sense of touch. It seems combined with a mus- 
cle-sense. Each of the babies the day it was born 
would clasp my finger when I put it into the hollow 
of a tiny hand. The other way I noticed the use 
of the sense of touch was in sucking, which the chil- 
dren knew how to do from the beginning. 

"'The babies. were born practically blind '" 

"What I" asked Frank. "Is that so?" 

" ' — not because they did not have eyesight, but 
because they can not see things in our sense of the 
word. The first use of sight seems to be in discern- 
ing the difference between light and darkness. Dur- 
ing the first week I thought Sarah turned her head 
toward the light, and Tom did soon after. I was 
surprised to discover that little babies do not wink. 

" 'I am sure the babies did not hear anything at 
first. I noticed that they seemed to be more sensitive 
to jars than to noises, and I was surprised that they 
made convulsive movements when they were held in 
a position which implied that they might be dropped. 
As they never have been dropped, I wonder if this 
is a special sense.' " 

As Mary read on, Frank grew more and more 
absorbed. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



51 



"How old are they now ?" 

"Eighteen weeks, yesterday." 

"What you say about color — is that true? Why, 
I supposed we were all born with a sense for 
color, and yet you say here that no child begins 
to discern any colors before he is many months 
old. Do we have to teach it, like letters and 
numbers?" 

Why Babies Should be Kept Quiet 

"We certainly do. And here's another thing. 
You complain sometimes that I keep the babies 
away from you, and do not let you toss them 
about. Don't you see why, now? You begin to 
realize how sensitive and how helpless they are; 
how easy it is to upset their nervous systems, and 
how important it is that they be played with only 
for a few moments at a time." 

"When do I begin to come in?" Frank asked, 
with a grieved expression. 

"By the time they are five months old you can 
commence to teach them, so you might as well be 
putting in your time now learning to be their 
tutor. Do you know what you are to teach first?" 

"Why — er, Mary, I suppose — most anything — 
rattles, and marbles, and baseball, " 

"Baseball, the first year? When they can't 
walk yet?" 

"You tell mc," Frank replied, humbly. 

"Now, Frank, don't think for a minute that I 
pose as a doctor. Of course there were certain 
regular food and sleep habits that nobody but a 
mother could control. I am trying to teach them 
to wait quietly until it is really time to be fed, 
to go to sleep regularly without being rocked or 
trotted or walked, and to keep from sucking their 
thumbs. I guess that's about all, so far. The 
story of a baby's first year, as I understand it, 
is in two chapters. During the first half of the 
year he is specially busy learning the parts of his 
body and how to use them ; during the second 
half, in locomotion, scrambling, creeping, and 
perhaps learning to walk. Another thing: during 
the first half they learn everything by trial and 
success — they don't care what we think of them, 
and they don't imitate what we do. But during 
the second half they imitate. So then is when 
fathers 'come in.' " 

"Thank you. This is just as new to me as the 
North Pole, or the geography of heaven. But it 
sounds real and it looks reasonable. This al! ap- 
peals to me, because it means System. You have 
)'our work cut out for you in advance, and you 
know just what to do in the nick of time." 

" 'Nick of time' is good, Frank. I have been 
reading that there are many things that it is good 
to begin to teach a baby, even before he seems old 



enough to appreciate them. For instance, chil- 
dren seldom recognize a tune before they are 
two years old, but they are sensitive to rhythm 
much earlier. That is why I began to play softly 
and regularly on the piano when they were a few 
weeks old. and why I sing them lullabies already. 
Even if they can not know color yet, they seem to 
like things that glitter, and I am going to hang 
red balls and ribbons to-morrow, so that these 
will be ready for them as soon as they begin to 
know red from gray." 

The upshot of this talk was that Frank agreed 
that, whatever else happened, the twins were to 
be kept quiet and not exhibited so often or for 
so long a time to admiring visitors. "We won't 
have them thrown or churned around, or given 
any more sudden shocks, or let Sam Browne try 
any of his monkey-shines with them," Frank said. 
"And if what you say about early training is so 
important, and I believe it is, let's go to it. Of 
course I'm not home much when they are awake, 
except Sundays, but I'm with you on all this, too. 
We want our youngsters to be as smart and wide- 
awake as the next ones, and I can see that we've 
both got to make a business of it." 

"I am glad to hear you say this, Frank," Mary 
sighed, with contentment. "I appreciate that, 
while the children are little at least, they are 
mostly 'up to me,' and I do want to be a good 
mother. Whether it is on account of my banker- 
father or not, I believe in System, and when I 
read in my books on child-training that there is 
such a thing as 'a Plan' for bringing up children, 
I want to know about it. It seems to me that if 
there are definite facts known about how children 
develop each year of their lives, there ought to be 
work that we can lay out ahead each year to help 
this development. I believe my note-books are 
going to help me to understand when these new 
phases come on, and, with the help of the best 
information I can get, I propose to 'fight it out 
along this line.' " 

"Bravo!" cried Frank. 

Father Begins to Play with the Twins 

Mary Howard was as good as her word. When 
the twins were half a year old she "let her hus- 
band in," as he had craved, on their training. 

"I have been studying a little more about the 
babies' senses," she told her husband, "and es- 
pecially about this muscle-sense and the way the 
little babies come to use their muscles. It seems 
that they get active with their fingers about theili 
mouths first, then with their hands in feeling and 
grasping, then with their feet, and finally with all 
of them together." 

"Yes, I noticed that Sarah had one of her toes 



52 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



in her mouth this morning. That was 'all to- 
gether,' wasn't it? Well, what does 'this fable 
teach,' for instance?" 

"Did you ever hear of finger-plays, Frank?" 

"On the piano?" 

"No. of course not. I don't suppose you can 
remember when your mother used to count things 
off on your fingers and thumbs and say rhymes 
as she did so?" 

"Oh, you mean, 'Thumbkin says "I'll dance",' 
and 'This is the father, kind and dear'?" 

"Why, you do remember, don't you?" 

"Well, hardly, because this was when I was ten 
months old. But our friend, Mrs. Corbin, was 
doing it the other night in the firelight when I 
dropped in to execute a mortgage for Jim. Where 
do we get these charming exercises and poems?" 

"I have some here in my 'library' — enough to 
give us a good start. And I am sure we can make 
up some more, if we need any." 

It was a fascinating sight, the next few even- 
ings, to watch Frank Howard, with a twin poised 
on each knee, first doing a finger-play out of a 
book, and then, after he had entered into the spirit 
of the play, making up motions and rhymes as he 
went along. His wife thought they were quite 
as clever as any that had been written by Froebel 
and the kindergartners. 

From these it was but a step to "Peep a Boo" and 
"Creep Mouse" and other old-fashioned plays that 
exercised the whole bodies of these lithe and 
laughing youngsters, and had to be interrupted 
only so that they should not get too excited for 
the twins ever to get to sleep. Father by this 
time was having as much fun as the youngsters. 

One- Year-Old Baseball 

"Now for the baseball," he announced one even- 
ing. Knowing his afliinity for the national game, 
Mary Howard was somewhat alarmed until she 
saw him draw from his pocket a soft kinder- 
garten ball and blow it up. He circled it about 
the table, he bounced it up and down, and rolled 
it to the babies in turn ; and while they were some- 
what aimless in their responses, he could find 
no fault with their enthusiasm. "We evidently 
haven't any Ty Cobbs in the family, but I can 
see that they are going to be good sports." 

By this time Frank was getting self-confidence. 
"What they need is more fun for their fingers," 
he said one evening. "I have been reading about 
the Montessori system in one of your books. 
They won't be ready for that for a year or two, 
but there is no reason why they shouldn't be get- 
ting a chance to fumble around a bit and see what 
they can do. I believe there are enough things 
about the house to keep them busy." Mary was 



tactful enough not to suggest that Frank was un- 
consciously echoing another article that he had 
read about home-made kindergarten materials, 
but when he produced in turn a bottleful of 
beans, a bunch of keys, a nest of boxes, and a 
tiny cabinet of drawers that had been used by a 
deceased great-aunt for a jewel-box, she properly 
commended his ingenuity. 

And the twins liked it all. True, they were not 
very skillful yet, and they soon got tired. But 
they were developing one trait that was very use- 
ful to a busy mother-of-two, self-amusement; and 
by varying the playthings from day to day, they 
were always happily busy. 

They Take a Baby Inventory 

"Let's just see where we are now," Frank 
said on the evening of the twin's first birthday. 
He had out his tapeline, and he carried Tom 
and Sarah gently to the bathroom door and held 
each one, wriggling, while he took their stature. 
"Won't it be fun to watch the two little ladders 
of height go climbing up the marks on the door !" 
mother said. "Which is the taller to-night?" 

"Tom. of course," replied father; "by a mere 
hair, though. Twenty-seven inches and a frac- 
tion. And as for weight, Mary, they've trebled in 
a )-ear. If they keep on at this rate, we'll be feed- 
ing two white elephants. But height and weight 
aren't much. Think of where they were a year 
ago to-night." By this time both the babes were 
in their cribs and Frank was seated in his Morris 
chair and Mary in her rocker by his side. "Let me 
get the Record, Mary. I'll warrant you have been 
making up your trial-balance already, you little 
bookkeeper, and you have got down all the chil- 
dren's assets and liabilities." 

"I did make a special entry to-day," acknowl- 
edged Mary. 

"Well, where are we now?" Frank repeated. 

"You remember we have talked a good deal 
about the way the children's senses develop? 
^\'ould you care to hear what I have written 
down about this ?" 

"Certainly." 

"I went back through tlie notebook, and here 
is what I found: 

" 'Active looking about : Tom and Sarah. 4th week 
Active touch : Tom, 7th week, Sarah, 6th week 
Consciousness of rhythm : both, 2nd month 
Exploring with their eyes : both, 16th week- 
Voluntary sounds : Tom, 4th month, Sarah, 18th 

week 
Range of vision, now : both, about 100 feet 

Distinguishing color: Tom, now, 3 colors, Sarah, 
4 •" 

"Yes, but what can they doF" Tom asked, a 
little impatiently. 



TO THE FIRST BIRTHDAY 



53 



"I have a record of that, too. 
equal in these items : 



They are about 



"'Lifting head: 2nd month 
Active grasping with fingers : 10th week 
Sitting efforts: Sth month 
Sitting unsupported : 7tli month 
Standing efforts : 7th month 
Creeping : Sth month 
Standing: 9th month 
Walking alone; lltli month, Sarah '" 

"Yes, but Tom would be walking, too, by now 
if he wasn't so much heavier," Frank insisted, 
stoutly. "That's a pretty good record, I think. 
It sums up somewhat like this : that a year ago 
they were more helpless than any of the animals, 
their motions were wholly random, they could 
neither see, hear, smell, nor understand, they 
were so dependent upon you that they would have 
died in a day without your care. To-day they 
have made a growth greater than they will ever 
make again in their whole lives. They have 
learned the parts of their bodies and can get 
about. Their senses are acute, they understand 
most all that we say, and they know how to make 
us understand most of their wants. They are 
perfectly healthy. They know how to play hap- 
pily by themselves. They obey implicitly. They 



are good-natured and affectionate. In fact, 
they've already got the whole animal world beaten 
by a mile, and they know more already than half 
the folks I do business with." 

"Don't you exaggerate?" 

"Well, that's a lawyer's business, isn't it? But, 
honestly. Mary, I'm glad you kept that Record. 
It is going to be invaluable to us next year. You 
ask the average mother what she knows about her 
young child, and she just goes off into a scale 
of superlatives — all emotion and no information." 

Mary glowed at her husband's praise. 

"And it wasn't so much work, either. I did 
a little now and then at it. Of course I was 
guided as to what to put down and what to 
expect." 

"People may laugh at Child Study all they 
please," Frank continued, "but as for me, I'm 
mighty thankful that the twins have a book- 
taught mother. You mix your mother-love with 
brains, Mary." 

They stood side by side and looked down on the 
sleeping children. 

"Somehow," Mary hesitated. "I didn't get it all 
down in the Record-book, did I ?" 

"How could you?" boasted Frank. "They're 
the sweetest children in Hometown." 



The child should make knowledge, not receive it. 
"He is learning not to live in the world, but to live the 
world.'"— rjErreest Carroll Moore. 



MAXIMS FOR A MOTHER 

A few maxims to hang up over the kitchen sink and read 
over while the dishes are being washed: 

1. Little children wish and need to be doing something 
with their bodies and hands every minute they are awake. 

2. They need a frequent change of occupation. 

3. If I provide them with interesting things to do, they 
will not have time to be fretful or to do naughty things. 

4. When I see my children harmlessly occupied and using 
their hands or bodies, I may be sure that they are educating 
themselves even if I can not understand the pleasure they 
take in their occupation. 

5. When a child has a great desire to do something incon- 
venient, let me ask myself, "Why does he want to do it?" 
and try to understand and meet the real need which is apt 
to underlie his unreasonable request. 

— Dorothy Canfield Fisher. 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS 

To the First Birthday 



Baby at birth, 29 

Baby's bands. 10 

Baby's bath, 5, 7 

Baby's fears, 21 

Baby's movements, 29 

Baby's nerves, 18 

Baby's proportions, 29 

Baby's records, 17, 50 

Baby's sleep, 18 

Bath-table. 7 

Books for expectant mothers, 4 

Bowlegs, 12 

Care of a baby, 5 

Chart of child development, 26, 27 

Chart of child study and child training, 25 

Circumcision. 12 

Cleanliness. 21 

Clothing, 10 

Companionship, 31 

Crying, 29 

Curiosity, 19, 34 

Danger signals, 6 
Defects of babies, 12 
Dressing a baby, 9 

Eating, 21 

Elimination, 21 
Emotional life, 21 
Emotions. 36 
Equipment for bath, 6 

Fears, 32. 33 
Feelings, 32 
Fifth month, The, 33 
First month. The, 31. 37 
First year. The, 29 
Fourth month. The, 33 

Grasping, 32 

Habits. 8, 21 
Hearing. 30, 31 
Heat-rash, 6 

Helplessness of babies, 29 
Holding the baby, 22 
Hunger, 30 

Imitation, 36 
Imitation by babies, 20 
Independence of babies, 24 



Landmarl<s in a baby's progress, 25, 29 

Maternal impressions, 3 
Meaning of infancy. The, 17 
Memorv, 22, 31, 33, 34, 36 
Muscles, The, 32. 35 
Music for the unborn baby, 4 

Nightgowns. 11 
Night sponge, 8 
Note-book for the baby, 13 

Oil bath. 6 

Out-of-door garments, 11 

Physical development, 17 

Physical life of the expectant mother, 4 

Purpose, 34 

Quiet, 51 

Reaching. 33 
Reading journey, 15 
Reasoning, 23 
Rocking a baby, 22 

Schedule, 8 

Second month. The, 32, 37 

Sense-life, 18 

Senses. 30 

Sight, 30, 32, 33, 35 

Sixth month. The, 34 

Sleep, 21, 43 

Sleeping bags, 11 

Sociability of babies, 20, 44 

Speech. 23. 34 

Summary of the first year, 24, 25. 36. 44. 49. 52 

Summary of the new-born baby, 30 

Sympathy, 35 

Third month. The, 32, 38 
Thumb sucking, 22 
Touch, 30, 32, 33 

Understanding, 36 

Weight-chart, 8 
Will. The, 32 



INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS 

To the First Birthday 



Assisting body-control, 42 

Baby's activities, 17 
Ball plays, 46, 52 

Crawling, 18, 
Creeping, 42 

Disciplining a baby, 24 

Emotional training, 43 

Finger plays, 46 

Getting about, 35 

Habit- forming, 43 
Habit-forming exercises, 21 

Memory training, 23 
Movement-plays, 45 
Music for baby, 19 



Occupations, imitative, 20 
Occupations to develop sense of sight, 18 
Occupations to develop sense of touch, 19 
Occupations to satisfy curiosity, 19 

Play with father, 9, 51 
Plays for the first year, 45 
Playthings. 19, 34 

Riding songs, 47 

Sense-plays, 45 
Sense-training, 41 
Social occupations, 20 

Training baby to talk, 23 

Walking, 42 



FROM THE 

FIRST TO THE SECOND 

BIRTHDAY 



I 



CONTENTS 

The Course of Training "•''•^ 

Looking Forward Through the Year William Byron Forhush 57 

John's Development and Training tlie Second Year Mrs. Madeline Darragh Horn 59 

Charts 70, 72, 73 

What to Expect the Second Year 

My Little Boy, Month by Month Mrs. Anna G. Noyes , 75 

How the Senses Develop The Editors 75 

What to Do the Second Year 

Playthings for the Second Year Mary L. Read 77 

Playthings, Homemade Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher 78 

Some Nursery Arts and Crafts Mrs. Harriet Hicko.v Heller 79 

Sense-Play with Margaret Mrs. Rhea Smith Coleman 81 

Plays and Games for the Second Year Luella A. Palmer 84 

A Child's First Interest in Pictures The Editors 85 

Music for the Babies Mrs. Harriet Ayer Seymour 87 

Traditional Finger-Plays and Imitative Plays 88 

Preparations for Handwork Mrs. Minnetta Sammis Leonard 89 

Differences Between Infant and Adult Memory David R. Major, PIi.D 91 

Habit-Training of Little Children Mrs. Eunice Barstow Buck 93 

"Baby-Talk" and Speech Defects M. V. O'Shea 98 

The Gift of Tongues Mary Adair 100 

The Use of Mother Goose The Editors 102 

Reasoning in Early Childhood John Dewey i 105 

How a Spoiled Child Begins Katherine Beebe 106 

Teaching Self-Control Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D 107 

Summary and Forecast 

The Second Year with Tom and Sarah William Byron Forbush 109 

Index to Subjects Facing 114 

Index to Occupations Facing 114 



56 



THE COURSE OF TRAINING 



LOOKING FORWARD THROUGH THE YEAR 

Dear Mother: 

We want you to notice how simply and sensibly ]\Irs. Horn goes on with her 
suggestions for this second year. Fortunately for us, Baby Number Two came 
along just in time for her to test her principles again and correct any mistakes 
that she may have made with John. We suggest your going through her in- 
teresting article at a reading or two, marking the items that seem to you most 
immediately helpful, and then taking it up, section by section, with the companion 
articles, as indicated in the Reading Course below. You will notice that the 
articles listed in the second column simply carry ]\Irs. Horn's suggestions a lit- 
tle further. In short, each topic for reading and practice means just "one thing 
at a time." 

"John's Development and Training the Second Companion Ariicles 

Year" 

I. John's Physical Development ''My Little Boy Month by Month" 

"Playthings for the Second Year" 

II. John's Playthings I "Playthings, Homemade" 

(."Some Nursery Arts and Crafts" 

"How the Senses Develop" 

III. Plays of the Senses j "Sense-Play with Margaret" 

["Plays and Games for the Second Year" 

T^r T„t,„v T3„„i.- -,„A AT.,-:., 1 " A Child's First Interest in Pictures" 

i V . onn s Books and Music li.nT ■ r .^ nt.- •• 

L Music for the Babies 

V. John is More Sociable "Finger-Plays and Imitative Plays" 

VI. John is an Imitator ''Finger-Plays and Imitative Plays" 

"VII. John's "Work" ''Preparations for Handwork" 

"VIII. John's Emotions 

IX. John's Good and Bad Habits "Habit-Training of Little Children" 

X. John's Better Memory "Differences Between Infant and .A.dult Memory" 

I " 'Babv-Talk' and Speech Defects" 

XI. John Begins to Talk "The Gift of Tongues" 

["The Use of Mother Goose" 

XII. How John Reasons "Reasoning in Early Childhood" 

XIII. What Imagination Is and Does 

["Habit-Training of Little Children" 

XIV. The Disciplining of John j ''How a Spoiled Child Begins" 

["Teaching Self-Control" 

XV. John Begins to Consider Himself a Real 

Person "The Second Year with Tom and Sarah" 

57 



jg THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

In order to tie together this second with the first year, I would Hke to repeat 
the Httle oiithne I gave at the end of Mrs. Horn's series last year. It ran as 
follows : 

First three months Silence, sleep and semi-darkness, with reflexive 

movements when awake. 

Third to fifth month Sense-play alone. 

From the fifth month Susceptible to gentle play with others. 

From the sixth month Active handling period. 

From the ninth month Combination of arm and leg movements, imitation 

of others, gestures, understanding of a few 
words, endeavors to creep. 

Toward the twelfth month More varied play, creeping, climbing and perhaps 

walking, ability to pick out objects in pictures. 

ATT.MX.MENTS OF THE FIRST YE-^R ATTAINMENTS OF THE SECOND YEAR 

Bodv-control Imitation Increased body-control More literal imitation 

Grasping and handling Beginnings of sense-play Better grasping and 

Trial-and-success Gesture-language handling Use of all the senses 

More trial and success Speech 

Occasional memory Primitive reasoning 
Self-assertion beginning 

From this you see that the business of the first year was to discover and 
control the parts of his body, to get hold of objects and persons around him by 
various senses, to start locomotion so as to extend his experiences with persons 
and things, and to begin to imitate those who were about him. His means of 
self-education were trial-and-success and imitation. Probably his first discovery 
as to the diliference between folks and things was that the former were some- 
thing he could imitate. 

The second year will be different. As soon as we start to enumerate the 
achievements of the latter we notice a distinct progress over the year before. 
It may be indicated as follows: 

The contrast between the first and second years is noticeable in the increased 
variety of educational materials we can use with the child. The first year about 
all we could do was to give him various articles to grasp and look at, any of which 
would attract but fickle attention. But this year the playthings may be selected 
for their color, size, weight, shape, and purpose. He will make more uses of 
them, as he observes more keenly what we do with similar objects. We can now 
use books, pictures, and music in the simplest ways, and we can suggest actions 
which he will carry on by imitation for quite a space of time. Last year we 
could communicate with him only by signs and a few name-words and action- 
words, but this year he can understand almost anything we wish to say to him, 
and can respond by words and signs of his own. In other words, we begin now 
to have real intercourse of ideas with him. 

All this suggests how much more interesting will be our endeavors to fur- 
nish him stimulating situations, suitable to the responses that he gives us, which 
will show where his impulses and interests lie. 

William Byron Forbush. 



JOHN'S DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING THE SECOND YEAR 



MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN 



I. John's Physical Development 

The most noticeable physical development in the 
second year was John's learning to walk. He 
began with a few steps alone until gradually he 
could walk awkwardly about the room. Toward 
the end of the second year, his awkward move- 
ments had been replaced by very good muscular 
coordination. 

A desire to climb closely followed his walking. 
I had to be careful to keep such dangerous objects 
as ladders out of the way. 

Running was much fun to him at this time. 
He appeared to do it for the pure joy of physical 
exercise. 

A love of the dance began in the second year. 
It was great fun to make a ring of father, mother, 
and John to play "Ring-around-the-rosy." John 
loved to dance around on tiptoe when music of 
marked rhythm was played on the piano. He 
liked both to run and walk to music. ''Here we 
go round the mulberry bush" was another favor- 
ite dance. We could not help but be an admiring 
audience whenever he played "Dance to your 
daddy." 

Practical Suggestions 

More attention was needed for the care of 
John's feet now. I tried to be careful that his 
stockings did not form uncomfortable wrinkles to 
walk on. I saw that his shoes were long enough, 
wide enough, and gave his ankles some support. 
I was c'areful, except in very hot weather, to 
keep his knees protected. We have heard moth- 
ers whose children were free from colds say they 
felt that it might be due to getting the legs ac- 
customed to exposure by wearing socks. When I 
asked an orthopedic specialist about this, he said 
that a very healthy child could stand this ex- 
posure, but that a mother would be safer by not 
trying it at all. It seems that exposing the knees 
means that the rest of the body must furnish extra 
warmth for them. 

As to clothing, I learned to avoid rompers and 
bloomers tight about the knees, tight neck and 
belt-bands, uncomfortable armholes, clothing that 
was too small, and rompers too short from the 
neck to the crotch. 

High-chairs seem to have been with us for a 
long time, and I suppose the reason is that fathers 
K.N. — 6 59 



and mothers so thoroughly enjoy having the 
babies high enough to be seen at meals. But so 
many severe accidents have occurred with them 
that they hardly seem worth tolerating. In John's 
third year he managed a high-chair very nicely, 
but two years seemed too young an age to know 
how to use them. Aside from tipping over, the 
backs are usually uncomfortable, and the board- 
rest is wrongly placed for the feet. 

I found that baby-carriages are both good and 
bad. These points I learned to look for : good 
springs, so the baby would not get severe jolts; 
some means of shading the eyes when riding with 
face to the sun; means of protection from the 
wind; and enough height from the ground to 
avoid the thick dust from the streets. 

The chair for the stool must be made as com- 
fortable physically for the baby as possible. The 
seat should be padded and there should be a foot- 
rest for the feet, if they do not touch the floor.* 

II. John's Playthings 

During the first year, unless asleep, some part 
of John's body was always moving. This tendency 
to be always active seems a necessary and funda- 
mental quality for education. I have heard Dr. 
Horn say many times that there is always hope 
for the child you can persuade to tr.y a thing. It 
is only when a child is inert and can not be 
persuaded to try that it is hopeless. Often we 
mothers wish there would come a period when 
the baby isn't "into something !" With this 
self-activity as a basis, the child experiments 
with the objects that come his way. He soon 
learns that the ball will roll, that the pin will 
stick into him, that mother usually pets him, and 
in' these ways builds up his world of concepts. 
This never-ending activity calls for many objects 
to manipulate, large spaces in which to play, and 
comfortable clothing. 

All muscular coordination improved during the 
year. His hands and arms so developed, and the 
coordination between his hand and eye so im- 



* When the child is about eighteen months old, a papier- 
mache seat with a small-size opening can be purchased and 
used over the regular seat of the toilet; there should always 
be kept in the bathroom a foot-stool high enough for the 
child's feet to rest on when sitting on the toilet. The use 
of this papier-mache attachment will be the means of saving 
the mother a great deal of work, and at the same time it 
will teach the child the habit of going to the bathroom for 
his physical duties — /. E. B. 



6o 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



proved, that he learned to feed himself. He 
handled his playthings better, and consequently 
enjoyed them more. 

As I watched John during the second year and 
the following year, it seemed to me that the 
handling of materials for the mere love of 
manipulation belongs to this pre-kindergarten 
period with the mother rather than to the kinder- 
garten period. I have concluded that a kinder- 
gartner must justify the use of any bit of material 
in her curriculum by some other reason than that 
the child is "learning to handle the materials." 

Some mothers have purchased the Montessori 
apparatus to help their children develop touch. 
This material is very expensive, and I believe is 
not so good as homely materials picked up about 
the house. It has frames with buttons on one 
piece of cloth and buttonholes on another, to teach 
children to fasten and unfasten their clothes. 
Why would it not be more sensible to give the 
two-year-old children a pair of rompers to fasten 
and unfasten? And instead of bits of cloth to 
match in color, a mother could find pieces about 
the house. When the child is older and needs a 
broader experience and more materials to handle 
and see, it would be fine for the mother to take 
the child with her to buy any extra needed ma- 
terial. This would give him an early insight into 
buying and selling, and be the beginning of 
teaching him the value of money. The "insects" 
could be roughly duplicated by a clever member 
of the household. This material is a long wooden 
block with holes into which cylindrical blocks 
fit perfectly. It seems to me that such "insects" 
need not be perfectly cylindrical or so well 
finished. 

Practical Suggestions 

It might be helpful to other mothers if I named 
the materials John liked best : 

1. A canvas swing. I had nails above the doors 

of the rooms in which I worked most, so 
that the swing could be moved as I moved 
about in my work. An occasional swing 
would keep John happy for a long time. 

2. The sand-pile, when filled with spoons, cans, 

and sieve, entertained him a great deal. I 
had my sand-pile on the ground so that John 
could really get in it. A sand-box will not 
answer the purpose at all. Its only recom- 
mendation is for the mother rather than the 
child, because it does keep sand off the floor.* 



• A happy medium between the two extremes of the sand- 
pile on the floor and the raised sand-box is to take a common 
kitchen-table and turn it upside-down. The three- or four- 
inch strip below the top will make a low frame to keep the 
sand in place, and at the same time it is not too high to 
keep the child from getting into the sand. If placed out of 
doors, a piece of canvas can be nailed to the bottom (now 



3. Plasticine or clay. Plasticine is preferable for 

the little baby because it can be had in colors 
and is easily taken care of. It is kept in its 
pliable condition by being put in a jar free 
from dirt, but the clay must have water con- 
tinually added to it. However, when a child 
is older, and wants to make a large object like 
a vase, the clay is more suitable. 

4. The box of "odds and ends." I kept a cre- 

tonne-covered box in an accessible place for 
John, full of the little tid-bits that he liked. 
He could go to this box at any time and pick 
out a choice plaything. 

5. Blocks. Toward the end of the second year 

and running into the third year, John became 
interested in blocks. He did not care so much 
for building fences and houses, as in making ^ 
the blocks into long rows just for the fun of 
manipulation. He would combine with his 
blocks other bits of material that he could 
find — cardboard, paper, beads, etc. 

6. A bag of cloth scraps gave him much pleasure. 

He liked to pull them in and out of the bag, 
smooth them out on the floor and look at 
them. 

7. A drawer of pictures. I had collected a lot of 

pictures of interest to a child to which John 
had access. He was pleased to look at them 
and enjoyed using them as a means of in- 
creasing his vocabulary. He would point to 
an object he did not know and say, "What 
dat?" On such occasions I tried to show him 
the real object. One day he asked me what 
a goose was, so the next time we went to 
the city park I showed him a goose. 

8. A box of laces. I assembled all the bits of 

laces I could find and put them in a box for 
John. They were mixed with bits of bright- 
colored ribbons. I have known him to play 
with this box as long as an hour at a time. 

9. A box of buttons. I was careful not to give 

him buttons until he had passed the period of 
putting things in his mouth. Now and then 
he would string these buttons, using a large 
darning-needle. 

Other playthings John enjoyed during the second 
year were an ordinary board on which to walk, a 
pole on which to hang, objects of various weights 
to handle, miniature clothes-pins and line with 
clothes to hang on them, a doll-furniture bed, 
bedding, dishes, table, chairs, pencil and paper, an 

the top) of the legs; side curtains should be made of the 
same material. At night the side-pieces should be fastened 
down to prevent cats from polluting the sand; of course, 
they should be kept down in stormy weather. If the side 
pieces can be operated separately, then on a windy day one 
or more can be left fastened down to act as a wind-shield. 
— /. E. B. 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BH^THDAV 



6i 



old watch to wind, small croquet-mallet and ball, 
a safety pin (too large to swallow) to fasten and 
unfasten, shoes to button, shoes to lace, doll- 
clothes to be put off and on, a spool of thread 
to wind and unwind, an egg-beater, bean-bags, 
blocks, a drum, a horn, etc. 

It is quite evident that the muscular develop- 
ment derived from play with such objects is not 
the only thing accomplished. The eyesight is im- 
proving, the hearing made keener, the sense of 
touch developed. We can also see that he is 
building up his concepts at the same time that his 
memory is growing stronger; in short, that the 
development of any one phase of his mental life 
is an aid to every other phase. 

By the end of the second year and into his third 
year we began to enjoy little games together. 
John would shut his eyes, or, better still, I would 
tie a clean white rag over his eyes, give him a 
well-known object to handle, and then let him 
guess what it was. In this way, we would daily 
exhaust our well-known playthings. He came to 
recognize most readily his teddy-bear, dolls, ball, 
crayon, etc. 

Often a choice object would attract John's eye 
and he would want to handle it. Once in a while 
I would let him do this while I sat with him super- 
vising his play so the treasure would not break. 
I had a vase which I allowed him to handle in 
this way. 

I made the mistake with John of allowing him 
too much freedom in playing with everything 
about the house. In trying to give him many 
experiences, I allowed him to handle things too 
freely. The mistake is going to be hard to rectify. 
The other day, I needed my apple-parer. which 
I found, but with the paring-blade lost. Another 
time I looked for my coffee-grinder and found 
that it had been entirely taken to pieces. 

At the end of the first year John, like many 
babies, delighted to pull the books out of the 
shelves. I solved this by giving him a shelf of 
books all his own. I collected all the old text- 
books I could find ; then I told John that these 
were his books and the others were mother's and 
father's books. He soon came to understand that 
he could do what he chose with his own books, 
so long as he didn't tear them, but that he was to 
let father's and mother's books alone.* 

III. Plays of the Senses 

The seilse of smell seemed present when John 
was a tiny baby. It seemed possible that his 

* This knowledge of "mine" and *'thine" can not be too 
early taught. We all detest a sneaky, pilfering, or nosey 
child, and here is the germ of prevention of those habits. 
It is also the foundation of courtesy; the child has some- 
thing which he can lend or give to another, something with 
which to show he is unselfish. — J. E. B. 



sense of smell aided his sense of touch when he 
was trying to find the breast. Since his chief 
food at that time was milk there was little chance 
to learn tlie smell of other foods. He was almost 
too small to be trusted with anything having a 
very definite odor. It may be that by my neglect 
of this sense, it plays a smaller part in his second 
year. 

Practical Suggestions 

About all I did to satisfy the sense of smell 
during the second year was to give him flowers 
to smell, plants, such as clover, and once in a 
while something like a perfume. We did not play 
many games of smelling until the third year. Then 
I would cover John's eyes, hold an object to his 
nose, an orange, for instance, and ask him what 
he was smelling. 

There has been too little experimentation done 
witli the sense of smell. This is a field where 
mothers could help in collecting data. 

Tasting in the first year can not be interfered 
with because the baby's food is so limited. About 
all I did with tasting in the second year was to try 
to create an attitude in John that he must like 
all kinds of food. In the third year, I found a 
tendency to wish to forsake his common foods, 
like milk and oatmeal, and to want always to be 
tasting foods that were spicy. I had to see care- 
fully that his ordinary but most needed foods 
were eaten first, with fruit as a reward. 

Here are three simple sei-tse-games we played: 

1. Matching samples. John did not acquire much 

accuracy in this in his second year, but he 
had begun to try to match pieces of red cloth. 
He had also begun to notice that all the 
pieces did not look alike, so I began to show 
him which were silk, 'which were cotton, 
wool, and linen. 

2. The "What-is-that" game. This might be a 

game in learning vocabulary as well as in 
seeing. Whenever John asked this question, 
unless he did so when an adult was talking, I 
answered him. 

3. Matching objects. We had a box full of but- 

tons, pebbles, beads, pegs, cardboard, blocks, 
etc. The game was to see if John could make 
piles of like objects. 

I continually called his attention to the sounds 
about him, definitely naming them. There were 
the call of the catbird, of the cardinal, the 
wren's chatter, the chirping of the robin, and the 
calling of the bluejay. 

The songs we sang to John and the pieces we 
played to him were the same in the second year 
as in the first. His interest in them became 
much keener. Now he could often try to sing a 



62 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

word and by the end of the second year he knew trips by pohiting ont and namhig the different 

the words to a number of songs, but could not birds and flowers and trees. , 

carry the tune. Children seem to vary a great An interest in picture-books arose at that time. 

deal in this ability. His books were of two kinds: those that he could 

look at by himself and those that he must be 

TTT T 1- > -n 1 J «» • shown because of the necessity of protecting 

IV. Johns Books and Music .. • i, . ^r t i . .• r .u 

•■ their beauty. You see, Johns conception of the 

Better muscular control now facilitated John's right treatment of books was very badly formed 

sight. He could walk, and hence do much in- as yet. The books that he could handle were 

vestigation of his own accord. He had better those linen books mothers all know, with bright 

control of his neck-muscles, so his head could be pictures. He also had a seed catalogue and a 

easily moved as his eye directed. The muscles catalogue from a mail-order house with which to 

of the eye itself could coordinate his eye-move- play at will. The books we showed him were 

ments to a better advantage. illustrated by such artists as Arthur Rackham, 

He was able to take longer trips, both in his Kate Greenaway and Jessie Willco.K Smith, 
buggy and the automobile, so his experience of The songs I sang to John were divided into two 

things to see increased. We helped him on these classes : 

I. Those I expected John to learn to sing: 

1. I found two books of old folk-songs (English), very beautifully illustrated, that were always a 
joy to both of us. 

(a) "Our Old Nursery Rhymes," harmonized by H. Moffat; illustrated by H. Willebeek Le 
Mair, David McKay, Philadelphia. Some of our favorites in this book were : 

"Pussy cat, pussy cat"; "Three Little kittens"; "O,' where is my little dog gone?" "Little 
Miss Muffet"; "Oranges and lemons"; "Humpty, dumpty"; "Here we go round the mul- 
berry bush." 

(b) "Little Songs of Long Ago"; same illustrator and publisher. The favorites in this book 
were: 

"Young lambs to sell"; "Little Polly Flinders"; "The north wind"; "Little jumping Joan"; 
"There came to my window"; "Simple Simon"; "Four and twenty tailors"; "Little Tom 
Tucker"; "Sleep, baby, sleep." 

2. The following book has songs for beginners: "The Progressive Music Series," Book 1; Silver 
Burdett & Co., New York, Boston, Chicago; 1914. This book has songs about subjects that 
interest little children, as the clover, circus, moon, raindrops, etc. 

3. This book has a few songs little children like very much: "Small Songs for Small Singers," 
by W. H. Neidlinger ; illustrated by Walter Bobbett ; G. Schirmer, New York. The favorites 
are : 

"The kitten and the bow-wow"; "The bunny"; "The chicken"; "The snow man"; "Little 
Yellowhead"; "Tick-tock." 

4. This book has some very short songs, only a line long, that children like. They always were 
very easy for John to learn, and some of them greatly appealed to his sense of humor. The 
book also contains some rhythms that can be used with the first dances. "Child-Land in Song 
and Rhythm" ; words by Harriet Blanche Jones ; music 'by Florence Newell Barbour ; The 
Arthur P. Schmidt Co., Boston, Leipzig, and New York. The favorites were : 

"The cow"; "Piggy-wig"; "The rooster"; "The hen"; "The farmyard." 

n. Those I sang to him and did not expect him to be able to learn for several years. 

1. The following book is one I thought full of things beautiful to sing to John: "The Song 
Primer" ; Alys E. Bentley ; A. S. Barnes & Co., New York. Some favorites were : 

"Song of the seasons"; "The fiddle"; "Who has seen the wind"; "Jack Frost"; "The dream 
man." 

2. Songs from "Ballads the Whole World Sings"; D. Appleton & Co., New York: "Cradle 
Song" ; Johannes Brahms. "The Dustman" ; J. L. Molloy. 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



^Z 



3. "Songs of Scotland" ; Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York and Detroit ; our favorite songs 
were : 

"The Campbells are comin'"; "O, Charlie is my darling"; "Hush ye, my bairnie"; "In win- 
ter when the rain rain'd cauld." 

4. Standard Folk Songs; Ginn & Co., New York, Boston, Chicago. Contains the beautiful Welsh 
folk song: "All through the night." This is found in many collections. 

5. "Negro Spirituals." John's father sang these to him. His father learned them from hearing 
the negroes sing them. Almost any collection of negro songs contains some a child likes. 

6. "Grammar School Songs" ; Charles H. Farnsworth ; Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 
Chicago, Boston. Some favorites were : 

"The tailor and the mouse"; "Baby's play song"; "Rainy days"; "Wee, wee"; "The tree in 
the wood"; "Churning song"; "The frog and the mouse"; "Swing low, sweet chariot." 



V. John Is More Sociable 

If for any reason John is held during a meal, 
he wishes to be held every meal thereafter. He 
would like to be all the time exactly where the 
family are, and, to be more accurate, on his 
mother's or father's lap. He seems to like strang- 
ers, even. Many babies do not seem to like people 
they do not know. 

His liking for pets has increased. He pets the 
cat, the dog, and tries to catch the bunny in his 
play-yard. He has a shelf outside the kitchen win- 
dow to hold crumbs for the birds. He likes to 
watch them eat here and to watch them splash 
in their concrete bath in the yard. Our yard is 
full of squirrels that give him much pleasure as 
they hop about among the trees. 

His growing desire to play games shows his 
increasing sociability. At first these games are 
very simple and played only by mother and John. 
But later he can play a game like "Ring-around- 
the-rosy" with the whole family. 

One type of game he loves is the "Finger-plays." 
A number of these are found on page 88 of this 
Manual. Here is a list of the "Finger-plays" 
that John liked : 

"This little pig went to market," 

"Here is a bee-hive," 

"Thumbkin says, I'll dance," 

"This is the mother, so kind and dear," 

"O where are the merry, merry little men?" 

"Dance to your daddy." 

John's chief desire seemed to be to be able to 
fit into the adult scheme of things. He would 
laugh when we laughed, although he saw no joke. 
He tried to sing when we sang. He also jabbered 
when we talked. 

He was quite willing to include the neighbors 
in his sociability by running away. This ten- 
dency seemed a natural one that must be satisfied. 
I could not allow him to play truant, as there are 
too many dangers in these days of modern im- 
provements. I had to punish him for running 



away, but made it up to him l)y giving him a 
broader experience in taking him visiting myself, 
inviting children to our house, and taking him on 
trips downtown and into the country. 

VI. John Is an Imitator 

For the mother who has a genuine interest in the 
development of her child, the keeping of baby- 
records is of much interest to her personally. 
And for the mother who does not have this 
special interest, the keeping of such records might 
seem worth while, if she would realize that by 
doing so she might really aid in collecting a mass 
of data that psychologists could assemble and 
from which they could deduce laws that would 
be of much value to every mother. 

Take the imitativeness of little children. The 
following are some of the points a mother might 
note : 

1. When did you see the first attempt to imitate? 

2. Describe in detail this attempt. 

3. Keep a record of all other instances of imita- 

tion during the first and second years. 

4. When did your child first imitate a mood? 

5. Keep a record of your process in teaching your 

child to imitate one definite act, bearing in 
mind these points : 

(a) Age of child when you began to teach 

this act. 
(&) Correct description of the model held 

before the child. 
(c) Did you keep the model constant? 
(rf) Amount of time required until the 

child began to attempt imitation of the 

act, and the amount of time necessary 

for him to perfect it. 

Such a record could be kept as to the imitation 
of a physical act and of a mood. 

John's imitation in the second year continued 
to be chiefly physical. His most noticeable model 
of imitation was of speech. A correct model in 



64 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



enunciating words helped very much at this time. 

Such models meant that although his imitation 
of a word might be poor, it was not because he 
was given an incorrect model, but that his vocal 
chords were still too undeveloped to say the word 
properly. It meant that as soon as he gained 
proper control of his vocal chords and had a cor- 
rect speaking-image of the word, he would speak 
it correctly. 

It seemed to me that .the imitation of attitudes 
could be _ cultivated further in the second year. 
By suggesting smiles instead of cries, his crying 
became limited. It also seemed to me that I could 
begin a consistently cheerful attitude in him 
toward everything by being cheerful with John 
myself as different situations arose. 

Practical Suggestions 

I found that suggesting a definite thing to do 
rather than saying "Don't" was the best way to 
manage John. I must confess that my ability 
to do this became strained as John grew older. 
He is now in his third year, doing innumerable 
things that immediately call for a "Don't." I 
have to keep myself in excellent training to have 
new interests to suggest, instead of calling out 
the objectionable "Don't." 

Dr. Tanner* says that imitation is dependent on 
three things: (i) The absence of conflicting 
ideas, which in turn is dependent on {2) atten- 
tion and (3) the number of associations one 
already has with the idea. Reasoning from this, 
it would seem that our best way of getting a 
child to imitate quickly and well would be, first 
to gain his undivided attention, and second to 
choose something that we want him to imitate 
that he already knows something about. For 
instance, if I want to teach John to roll a ball 
to me, I get all other playthings out of sight, so 
that his attention is not distracted by a string of 
spools, a green wagon, or a red harness. And 
then in the second place, let him play with the 
ball by handling it. In this way he builds up a 
number of ideas about that particular ball and 
hence about balls in general. He learns that his 
ball is round, is soft, and that it will roll as it 
slips from his hand. 

VII. John's '"Work" 

There was a time when mothers and fathers 
believed that it was not good for a child to spend 
too much time in play. Now, if anything, the 
pendulum has swung the other way, and all people 
believe that a child becomes educated through 
play, and some people even seem to believe that 

* .\my Eliza Tanner, author of "The Child: His Thinking, 
Feeling, and Doing." 



a child should not be made to do anything that he 
does not wish to do. With John I have found 
that his play was educative, but that it helped 
him to have a few duties labeled "Work." I 
found that if he never did anything he did not 
want to, he came to suppose that life was built 
up around John. I felt that it was not fair to 
him to permit him to grow up with such an idea 
when it would be so far from the truth. 

Practical Suggestions 

Of course John had no work to do the first 
year. It took all his powers to help himself grow. 

By the end of the second year there were a few 
tilings I could insist upon. I taught him to pick 
up his own playthin.gs; to hang his bib on the 
back of the chair when through eating; to hang 
up his wraps after play out of doors; to hang 
up his towel and wash-rag, etc. I wanted him to 
learn that every one in the household must con- 
tribute to its smooth running. 

He was interested in imitating household ac- 
tivities in a very crude way. I permitted him to 
dust the furniture, to help me make the beds, to 
make a little pie when I baked, to sweep with 
his broom, and to iron with a sn->all iron. These 
are only a few of the activities in which he 
participated. 

VIII. John's Emotions 

Jealousy did not seem to be a part of John's 
make-up during the first year. But toward the 
end of the second year, when his brother Bobby 
arrived, there were many signs of jealousy. The 
attention that had been devoted to John now had 
to be divided between the boys. John resented 
this very much, and showed it by being very 
hateful to Bobby, and by trying all sorts of means 
for keeping our attention on himself. One day 
I became aware of the fact that I was unfairly 
centering my display of affection on the baby. 
I had just said to Bobby, "You're such a sweet 
boy," when John said, "I'm a sweet boy too. 
Mamma." I learned my lesson. Thereafter 
when I had both children with me I was careful 
to praise them both and to give them both the 
same amount of aft'ection. In this way I avoided 
situations that incited jealousy. 

There are things which I had to teach John 
to be afraid of in his second year. He must not 
play around the stove, he must not play aiout the 
fender of the automobile, he must not handle 
sharp objects. I had tried to teach John to leave 
such things alone by saying "no, no," and, if 
necessary, giving his hand a sharp pat. 

Of course, I never invented any unnecessary 
fears, as fear of the dark, and of the "bogey- 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



65 



man." It is cruel to impose such baseless fears 
on little children. 

Under "Memory" I have stated a few facts re- 
garding the harmful effects of childhood-fears 
that are long remembered.* 

IX. John's Good and Bad Habits 

I tried to keep up the regular habits as to eating 
and sleeping that I began with John in his first 
year. I found it just as easy as I did when he was 
a small iboy. 

I found that the second year began to offer 
a small-opportunity to begin habits of good man- 
ners. Although I could not teach John at once 
to have the best of manners himself, I was care- 
ful that he should see good models. He learned 
to say "Please," and when prompted would say 
"Thank you." 

Practical Suggestiotis 

So far as I know these* are the means mothers 
usually use for breaking the thumb-sucking habit : 

1. Thumb-stalls. I think that these are effective 

only with very young children. I tried break- 
ing John with thumb-stalls after he was a 
year old, but he would pull them off as fast 
as I could put them on. However, I used 
them with Bobby at three months old and 
they were quite effective. 

2. Adhesive tape. This is all right when the habit 

is not very well formed, but otherwise the 
child sucks the tape, finger, and all. 

3. Home-made mittens. These might have been 

satisfactory with John had they been sewed 
into a waist of some sort, but pinned to the 
sleeves they were too destructive of clothing. 

4. Aluminum mitts. These have been found to 

break the habit in the ordinary child. Of 
course, their use must not be in a haphazard 
fashion, but continued until the habit is 
broken. 



♦ So few mothers stop to realize that older people may be 
the cause of transmitting the fear of thunder-storms and 
wind to children. Whether these fears come to the child 
without suggestion or not. they do cause so much suffering 
that grown people who understand all this should see to it 
that no expression of fear by an adult ever reaches a child. 
These fears are of no use and are of great harm. The least 
expression of fear on the part of a child may be turned to 
wonder, if the adult only controls his own feelings, while 
commenting upon the wonder and beauty of the storm. At 
least, the mother can ignore it and turn away the child's 
attention by some absorbing work or story. The mother and 
older sister of a child of five, usually very sensible, behaved 
foolishly during a thunder-storm. The little child, by imita- 
tion, became almost wild whenever a storm approached. The 
writer, while visiting at their house during a fearful storm, 
took little Margaret with her to another room, talked about 
the storm as an ordinary affair, and finally suggested that 
they watch out of the window to see the lightning. The 
child's fear soon disappeared and she became absorbed in 
finding out various familiar objects outside that they could 
see only by the lightning's flash. — M. S. L. 



5. A continual reminder with a slight shock. (By 

a shock I mean calling to him in an unusual 
tone of voice to "Stop it!") The trouble 
with this method is that most mothers are 
too busy to be with the child every minute 
to remind him to take his finger out of his 
mouth. One must be careful how such a 
method is used with a nervous child. 

6. Unpleasant Consequences. When the habit has 

continued until the child is three, four, and 
five years old, extreme measures are per- 
missible. Then an unpleasant consequence 
should always follow the act. Personally, I 
believe slapping on the hands is legitimate 
under such circumstances. A mother must 
be careful to be consistent. The child must 
not be allowed to suck his thumb unnoticed 
one minute, and be slapped for it the next. 

There are all kinds of cries, and a mother must 
learn to distinguish between them. When the 
particular cry is heard that may safely be ignored, 
the mother should not notice it. If the mother 
does take the baby up every time he gives this 
cry, there will be absolutely no peace in the 
family. She will be rocking him when he should 
be in bed asleep; she will be holding him at the 
table when she should be eating in peace ; she 
will be trying to sew with a baby crying and 
squirming at her feet. All this can be avoided 
by having special play-times, and at other times 
letting the baby amuse himself. 

If, by chance, you have allowed this habit to 
become established, the breaking of it may cause 
an awful scene. The baby will yell and kick for 
a half hour at least, if his cries are not answered. 
But if he is a healthy baby, the crying will not 
hurt him. I remember well letting John have 
his first long weep when he wanted to be taken 
up at an impossible time. However, the one 
experience was all that was needed to make him 
understand that crying did not get him what he 
wanted. 

X. John's Better Memory 

It seemed to me that during this second year 
John not only became familiar with surround- 
ings, but at times was conscious of having seen 
things before. John was so slow in learning to 
talk that never during his second year did he 
say. "I remember that lady." I imagine that 
mothers who have children who talk well in their 
second year find that toward the end of that time 
their children begin to "'member" things in words. 
We must not confuse, however, the ability to talk 
with the ability to remember, as the layer with 



66 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



many children comes much earlier than the 
former. 

Mr. Colvin* says there are two I_)asal elements 
in memory: impression and association. Impres- 
sion "is to be thought of as that capacity in the 
nervous system for receiving and retaining e.x;- 
periences." Association "relates to the manner 
in which the elements in memory are linked 
together, so that they may be subsequently re- 
called." The former activity can not be changed, 
but mothers can do a great deal to help their 
children form accurate and lasting associations. 

Practical Suggestions 

I followed a few simple rules during this second 
year: 

1. I let John experience an object in every pos- 

sible way. The first piece of fur he saw, I 
let him look at, feel, stroke, smell, lift. I 
could have let him merely look at it : then 
associations would have been formed through 
sight only. By stroking it against his cheek, 
he formed associations of touch, possibly 
of weight, and certainly of warmth. Smell- 
ing it formed the association of smell. This 
takes time, of course, but makes life much 
more intelligible to a two-year-old. 

2. I brought new objects to him to experience. I 

decided this could not be overdone, as a child 
quickly casts aside anything he is weary of. 
By bringing things to him I helped him to 
become familiar with many objects early, so 
that his memory would have many materials 
to work with. 

Memory for speech is necessary, as speech 
develops during this year. I tried to help John 
in this particular, by making the associations be- 
tween the object and its name, clearly and often. 
For example, each day as he was dressed for an 
out-door airing, I said "cap" and pointed to it. 
In a very short time he knew what the word "cap" 
meant, and very soon he was saying it. I found 
I had to be careful always to call an object 
by the right and same name. 

Memory as a general faculty, we are told, does 
not exist. We simply have memories for specific 
groups of things. This has been a very encourag- 
ing thought to me. I can start a fund of memory- 
images for John — one about birds, another of 
stories, another of beautiful songs, and so on. 
These groups of images that I start will gather 
more similar images to themselves, sometimes con- 



* Stephen Sheldon Colvin, Professor of Educational Psy- 
chology, Brown University, 



sciously, sometimes unconsciously, throughout his 
life. In short, he will never be poor in beautiful 
things. 

XI. John Begins to Talk 

Usually by the end of the second year a baby 
has a vocabulary big enough to use for demanding 
his most common needs, and as far as under- 
standing is concerned, without being able to 
pronounce the words, he has a very large vocab- 
ulary. 

John and I used to play a game by which he 
could get drill in catching meanings to words 
and pronouncing these words. At the table, I 
would say, "Where is the knife?" and so on 
around the list of table-furnishings, and in 
answer John would point to the object I asked 
about. I would also say, "What is this ?" pointing 
to some object, and John would answer by giving 
the name of the object. If his pronunciation 
were incorrect I enunciated the word very clearly 
after him, but did not insist on drill that would 
be tiring. 

I avoided "baby-talk" entirely. I do not mind 
hearing a baby talking this way, but it is disgust- 
ing to hear a child four or five years old still 
mispronouncing his words. What a mother really 
does ■ when she permits "baby-talk" is to teach 
her child a list of inaccurate symbols of things 
at a time vi^hen it is easiest for him to learn the 
correct symbol. After having learned these 
symbols incorrectly, the child must again learn 
them all over. It is so unnecessary to burden a 
child with this extra work merely for the adult 
pleasure of hearing him talk "cutely" when a 
baby. 

His mental life seemed to grow active as he 
grew physically, and especially after he learned 
to talk. Then he began to ask many questions 
which showed that he was trying hard to under- 
stand the workings of the world about him. At 
first I tried to answer every question, but I found 
that he was coming to believe that his questions 
were the most important talking that could be 
done. As soon as he learned that adult conversa- 
tion must be respected, his questions assumed their 
proper place. 

I kept a record of John's vocabulary. I always 
had an alphabetic book and pencil handy, and as 
soon as John acquired a new word I immediately 
wrote it down. 

Mothers might ask what would be the value of 
such a record. I think the chief value to mothers 
would be the fun of comparing the vocabularies 
of the different children of the family. 

The chief value, however, is to the psychologist. 
It is possible that, with a sufficient number of 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



67 



such records, psychologists might discover laws 
of learning with which we are now unfamiliar. 

XII. How John Reasons 

Reasoning, like all mental development, grows 
gradually from year to year. The associations 
begun in the first year only multiply and enlarge 
in the second year. It seemed to me that any 
reasoning done in the second year was still very 
simple. John knew that bringing his bottle meant 
something to eat very soon. He knew that being 
put to bed meant that he should go to sleep. He 
knew that the presence of his father meant a frolic 
of some sort. 

The acquiring of language facilitated his 
reasoning very much. It meant that he could 
classify things more quickly, could ask for in- 
formation, and that he would have tools with 
which to handle his thinking. The acquisition 
of language has been the means of the same rapid 
development to the child that it has been to the 
race. 

I found that laughing at John's queer associa- 
tions, even in his second year, confused and 
embarrassed him. We mothers should never be 
guilty of this. I also found that repeating in his 
hearing funny associations that John had made 
retarded his desire to try to build up concepts. 

Practical Suggestions 

1 could help him best by helping him to classify 
objects. For instance, until he knew the birds, 
I would say: "This is the robin red-breast; this is 
a wren bird; this is a blue jay bird." Or I 
would say, "There goes a big yellow dog; there 
goes a little white dog," etc. 

I would gather together materials about the 
house which were different but belonged to the 
same class. I would give him big spoons and 
little spoons, bright spoons and dull spoons, spoons 
with long handles, spoons with short handles, 
wooden spoons, silver spoons, tin spoons, with 
which to become familiar. In short, I tried to 
get together all sorts of materials belonging to the 
same class that he might handle them, make noises 
with them, see them, and thus begin to form cor- 
rect concepts, and to clearly reason. 

John's smiles the first year, I think, were noth- 
ing more than signs of feeling good. But by 
the end of the second year a few things seemed 
to appeal to him as funny. Of course these repre- 
sented a crude sort of humor, but it seemed to me 
that such situations were worth cultivating. The 
dog's chasing his tail, funny shakes of my head, 
repeated noises, caused him to laugh. 



By the third year his sense of humor really 
took on some of the earmarks of adult humor. 

XIII. What Imagination Is and Does 

I can remember when I understood "imagina- 
tion" to be an ability to place myself in unusually 
pleasant and impossible situations. I would find 
riiyself doing miraculous things as queen of a 
delightful fairyland; I would take fanciful trips 
to all parts of the world; often I rubbed a 
charmed ruby, found myself dressed in fur, 
among Eskimos, living as they live. Other times 
I fancied myself hopping about the jimgle, enjoy- 
ing and understanding the chattering and noises 
of the monkeys and their friends. 

This kind of imagination afforded me many 
pleasant hours, and was not to be regretted. But 
the reading of articles by men who had gone deep 
into the subject gave me a correct conception 
of it, and a clearer idea of how to make it a 
working force in my life and in the lives of my 
children. I learned that there are two kinds: 
reproductive and productive. 

To-day I visited an old home I would like very 
much to own. As I write, I can see many details. 
It has a large porch on the front with pillars. 
Flagstones make an extension to the porch of 
about six feet, where they end in a low stone 
wall with stone steps leading down to a terrace. 
On each side of the steps are pines — the tallest 
I have ever seen. 

Another porch, also with pillars, faces the 
east. Beyond are lilies-of-the-valley, tulips, daf- 
fodils, a large hickory tree, and a damson plum 
tree. 

The porch at the west also has pillars. It faces 
the_ fruit orchard — cherries, apples, plums; and 
a garden of small fruits — gooseberries, rasp- 
berries, currants, etc. 

This ability to recall such definite and true 
images as that of the old house is called "repro- 
ductive" imagination. 

My old house offers many possibilities for im- 
provement. I can sit here, reconstruct my house, 
retaining many of its present features, and adding 
many new ones. Around the yard I build a white 
picket fence to insure privacy; over the porch I 
start a vining rose; I add to the flower garden 
on the east, hollyhocks, sweet williams, old- 
fashioned pinks, bachelor's-buttons, marigolds, 
etc. 

My interior I almost rebuild. I open the old 
fireplaces, fill with "smelly" pine on a chilly 
evening— and, yes, really I see us all popping 
corn over coals. I throw a dark, back parlor in- 
to a front living-room and have one large, light, 
livable room. I add baths. I put in steam heat; 



68 



THK HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



I lay hardwood floors. I even imagine a day 
when I shall add an upper story. I dream 
away an hour with my old house. Although 
the house may never be mine to rebuild, still I 
had experienced the real pleasure of rebuilding it 
in my mind. 

This kind of imagination is called "productive" 
imagination. In this instance, it is my ability to 
add to the real images of the house other images 
I have gathered here and there with a house I 
have never seen as the result, but one quite satis- 
fying and possible. 

This example of being able to recall the old 
house so clearly, illustrates the value of being 
able to make clear and accurate images. I can 
shut my eyes and see the working plan of the 
house before me although I am two miles away. 
My ability to reconstruct the place shows how 
valuable is "productive" imagination. With this 
ability, I am able to convert the old house into a 
livable and beautiful habitation. This example 
of "productive" imagination also shows that my 
original idea of imagination was a very limited 
one. 

We often hear it said of a person that he is 
successful because of the gift of imagination. 
The speaker refers to the "productive" imagina- 
tion. He means that a man can make clear 
images of his business or profession as it is, and 
add improvements that enhance it. 

To-day when I visited the old house, I also 
went to the machine shop to get my Ford. Other 
cars were being repaired — a Velie, Moline, 
Dodge, Oldsmobile. I have just tried to recall 
the appearance of these cars in the same amount 
of detail I did the old house, but I can not. 
Evidently something has happened in my make- 
up to make it possible clearly to image houses 
and not to image cars. 

I have found that the same qualities that help 
me form clear images of my old house are the 
qualities needed when I wish John to see some- 
thing clearly. No one has the same degree of 
imagination for all things. I began early to help 
John form clear images because when I was not 
at hand he would need them. 

Interest assures clearer images and more of 
them. I am interested in all sorts of old homes, 
but my interest in a car ends in its ability to get 
me where I want to go. Consequently, my repro- 
ductive images of old houses are excellent, while 
those of cars are very poor. 

I wanted John to know birds, so I began to 
call his attention to them. I had him listen to the 
early morning song of the cardinal. When we 
saw one, I pointed out the crest on its head. I 
called its color "red." I told him that it often 



stayed through our cold winters. I taught him 
the call of the pee-wee and showed him pictures 
of the bird; now we are hoping to see the bird 
near. We saw our first robin. We talked about 
the color of its breast, its song, etc. This interest 
I am starting in birds will create clear images of 
them. These images will be like rolling stones : 
they will add knowledge of the birds year by year, 
until, I hope, bird-life will always be a pleasure 
to John. I saw to it that this interest was sus- 
tained. We mothers often begin to instruct a 
child in some interesting field, and then permit him 
to forget it. 

By calling John's attention to these birds, I 
assure Iiim clearer images. Interest and attention 
go hand in hand. As John gives more attention 
to bird-life, his interest increases, and as his 
interest increases he notices their characteristics 
more and more. 

Practical Suggestions 

The question arises: Shall I help John see 
most through his eyes, or his ears, or his nose, 
etc.? Authorities seem to disagree as to which 
type should be cultivated. As a mother of one 
and two-year-old babies, I feel this problem can 
be ignored. It seems to me that any outstanding 
quality of a bird, for instance, should be empha- 
sized, and all thought as to how the image was 
received might be ignored. 

The problem of imaginary playmates troubles 
many a mother, but it seldom begins after the 
second year. I know one two-year-old who plays 
he is another child. Children I have known who 
had imaginary playmates, used them for a while 
and then forgot them. It always seemed to me 
that no interference, either by encouragement or 
discouragement, was the attitude for mothers to 
take. Children forget these imaginary playmates 
when something better takes their place. 

John, now in his third year, has no imaginary 
playmates, but he has an imaginary office that he 
shifts to suit his daily needs. Yesterday he taught 
children music at this office, and to-day he manu- 
factured shoes. 

I feel this office will soon be forgotten. I see 
no harm in permitting him to indulge this fancy. 
He knows he really has no office, and knows that 
we know it. 

The greatest difference I saw in the development 
of John's images the first and second year was 
in the number of things of which he formed 
images. 

The first year he had to formulate very clear 
images of very ordinary objects — mother, father, 
chair, bottle, dogs, cats, etc. 

The second year he increased his list greatly 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



69 



and still remained within a scope that seems very 
obvious to aduhs. 



Practical Suggestion 

The coming of language in the second year 
was a help. Learning the name of an object 
called John's attention to it and gave it a "handle" 
whereby to make the object more familiar. 

XIV. The Disciplining of John 

Most of us prefer to avoid disagreeable situa- 
tions, and so I found in John's second year that 
it was easier for all of us to "manage" John than 
to discipline him. When I saw a situation was 
arising in which discipline would be necessary, I 
even removed the coveted object or substituted 
one of more interest to John. 

I found that I must be consistent in always 
punishing a forbidden act. This is often very 
hard to do, but we mothers must do it if we do 
not want to confuse the baby-mind. 

I made this motto, "Never punish when angry." 
I felt that I could not trust my judgment at such 
times. 

There was no time in John's second year that 
a whipping would have been justified. However, 
when, in his third year, he threw an iron at his 
baby brother, I felt that severe punishment was 
necessary. 

I did not find the handling of John's will so 
easy in the second year. Such evidences of "will 
power" occurred oftener with more attention fixed 
on the desired goal, and with greater disappoint- 
ment if the goal was not to be had — and often 
the goal seemed to be somewhat unexplainable. 
I remember John's taking, one day, with appar- 
ently no reason for it at all, a notion he did not 
want to be dressed. 

During this year I changed my method of 
handling such situations. John was still too young 
to reason with, so whenever possible I suggested 
as an alternative something else he liked and could 
have. In the case of not wanting his clothes put 
on, I said, "John, would you like to be dressed, 
then go with mother to the basement to build the 
fire?" 

"Basement" and "fire" were two magic words. 
He immediately acquiesced to having his clothes 
put on and went with me — a very happy boy — 
to watch me build the fire. 

In the second year the acquirement of meanings 
of words helped me to handle these situations. If 
he had not known the meanings of the words 
"fire" and "basement," my innocent device for 
getting on his clothes would not have worked. 



Practical Suggestions 

I found that John's father and I must agree on 
our procedure in discipline, because John realized 
very early when either parent was an avenue of 
escape from what he was wanted to do. His 
father and I decided that when one or the other 
handled the situation in a way the other did not 
approve, we would not criticise the method used 
before John, but wait and talk it over when John 
was absent. 

I found it useless to give many "whys" during 
the first and second years. John did not even 
understand when I gave them. I believe — but I 
am sure that many mothers will not agree with 
me — that it is more important that John learn 
to obey immediately than to understand the "whys 
and wherefores" of his obedience. I might add 
that, in the past, I have so often unnecessarily 
explained the "why" that John's tendency for 
prompt obedience has been hampered. I am try- 
ing to reform. From my experience, I found 
that too prolonged explanations gave John a dis- 
torted idea of his importance in our household. 
He was fast coming to believe that he should do 
nothing he did not want to do until convinced — 
or very often not convinced — by a long and elabo- 
rate explanation. How we all dislike the person 
who insists upon being the center of the stage 
all the time ! John was fast coming to believe 
that such was his place in life. 

I found that I need not expect noble qualities 
in John during his first and second years. I could 
not expect, if he were angry, to secure self- 
control. I could not expect him to share a 
coveted plaything with others voluntarily. This 
sort of thing seemed left for the years to come. 

John is now in his third year, with an increas- 
ing ability to hold his attention to a desired goal 
and a determination to "compromise" rather than 
to obey. So I find a new stimulus to this particu- 
lar problem ; I have found a few new solutions, 
and am searching for more and better ones. 

XV. John Begins to Consider Himself a 
Real Person 

As John was nearing his third year, he began 
to think of himself as a separate person with his 
own belongings, as mother and father were people 
with their belongings. I encouraged this feel- 
ing by giving him first rights over certain things 
and places. A corner of my study was his to 
play in when he wished ; he had a box all his own 
in which to keep his playthings; he had a chest 
for his clothing ; he had his own bed. I was glad 
to help him grow in this idea of self, hoping that 



7° 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



the ideals he built up for himself, and any respect 
I could instil in regard to his personal property, 
would ripen properly as he matured. 

Only tales of children who have been unceas- 
ingly contrary when little and have grown to 
have beautiful dispositions later, give me any hope 
in regard to John. Now, in his third year, the 
usual thing is to wish to do just the opposite of 
what he ought to do. U I say, "John, won't you 
come upstairs?" more than likely he prefers to 



stay downstairs. The only way I can explain 
this is, that John is enjoying the ability to assert 
himself as a real person. I have decided that I 
have not ignored this sufficiently, but have chal- 
lenged him whenever he wished to do the opposite 
of what I asked him. I am going to try the 
method of ignoring his "contrariness" during the 
coming months and see how it works. I am also 
going to be careful not to give unnecessary 
commands. 



CHART OF CHILD STUDY AND CHILD TRAINING 
FOR THE SECOND YEAR 

BASED ON "JOHN'S DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING THE SECOND YEAR" 
BY MRS. MADELINE DARRAGH HORN 



THE BABY'S RESPONSES 

He is ever active, climbing, pulling, walking, and 
making use of the larger muscles of the arms 
and hands. 



He takes an increased pleasure in colors, odors, 
tastes, and touch-sensations. 



He enjoys musical tones and himself engages in 
tuneless chanting. 



He begins to understand and enjoy pictures. 



He likes to be with people and to do things with 
them. 



He tries to imitate the physical actions of others. 
Their ideas make slight appeal. 



He develops certain lively fears. 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 

If we see that he has comfortable clothing and 
has large playthings and articles to handle, 
he may increase in muscular strength and 
control. 

If we offer him a variety of sense-impressions, 
particularly things of different sizes, weights, 
colors, feeling, and taste, for experiment, we 
not only enlarge his experiences, but if we 
name each article as he uses it we give him 
definite concepts and increase his vocabulary. 

If we select simple and beautiful songs and in- 
strumental selections, and sing and play them 
to him, we shall give him a good musical 
atmosphere, develop his taste and encourage 
him soon to sing and to wish that he himself 
might play. 

If we show him picture-books with clearly-drawn 
illustrations in black-and-white or strong 
color of subjects within his field of interest, 
we shall enlarge his experiences still more. 

If we plan action-plays, such as finger-plays, 
jumping-plays, running- and chasing-plays, 
we will give him wholesome exercise and 
encourage his sociability. 

If we give him good models and execute what 
we do slowly, he should soon learn many 
acts that will be useful to himself, and he 
may even begin to share in little tasks that 
will be helpful. 

If we ourselves are calm and reassuring at un- 
necessary terrors, we shall eliminate these 
from his mind. We would do well to let 
him continue to be careful of real perils. 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



71 



THE BABY'S RESPONSES 

He tends to develop a few undesirable habits. 



He occasionally shows that he recalls a preced- 
ing experience. 



He tries very hard to talk, by imitating. 



He begins to associate things and acts when he 
sees them together often, and so does a little 
reasoning. 



He begins to show a little imagination in his 
play, by pretending that one thing is some- 
thing else. 

He shows a tendency to rebel against doing (or 
to stop doing) what he is told. 



He likes to feel that he owns his individual pos- 
sessions. 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 

If we always cause undesirable acts to have un- 
pleasant consequences and vice versa, we 
build for good habits. Good examples also 
are now necessary. 

If we will let him have his experiences by a 
variety of sense-impressions, by touch, feel- 
ing, sight, etc., we shall tend to fi.x these 
impressions. If we link new experiences to 
old ones, we increase his number of associa- 
tions. 

If we enunciate slowly, and point to things by 
name, using good language and not "baby- 
talk," he will widen his knowledge and im- 
prove his mastery of speech. 

If we will bring together things of the same 
class, he will learn how to classify them. If 
we always associate certain actions of his 
with what he should do next, we establish 
desirable habits. 

Since imagination is built out of images, the more 
images, facts, words he possesses the more 
he has to build with. 

Most of such emergencies we can avoid by fore- 
sight and distraction. Often we may aiiford 
a pleasant alternative. Since the child can 
reason little, "whys and wherefores" are use- 
less. Gentle firmness is necessary. Corporal 
punishment is usually senseless. 

If we furnish a special play-place and something 
in which to keep his belongings, we foster 
this desirable sense of personality. 



One of the essential thoughts in childhood education to- 
day is that the child's own purposeful acts are the chief 
feature in his development. — Grace E. Mix. 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 

SECOND YEAR (From the First to the Second Birthday) 
These references suggest helpful explanatory passages in "The Child Welfare Manual" 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 

Movements: climbing and pulling first of the 
year; walking, 12th to 14th months; running 
alone, 18th month; in play, larger muscular 
movements of arms and hands [L 210]. 

Activities: increasing dexterity and control of 
hands; experimentation with objects; mimic 
play- 
Weight: beginning of year, average 21 pounds, 
end of year, 27 pounds [I. 148, 382]. 

Height: beginning, average 27 inches, end, 31 
■ inches. 

Proportions becoming normal [I. 322]. 

Respiration, about 28. 

Pulse, 120, down to 110 [I. 283, 284]. 

Temperature, as of adults [I. 284, 288, 289]. 

Dentition: at ly^, 12 teeth, at 2, 16 [L 209]. 



PHYSICAL SUGGESTIONS 

Sleep: 12 hours at night and a 2 to 4 hours' nap. 

Hygienic protection, as before [I. 211]. 

Food: milk as the staple, broadening into an ex- 
tended dietary [I. 251]. Teach to feed him- 
self. 

Exercise: regular outdoor periods and sleeping; 
opportunities for climbing, pulling, walking, 
running, lifting, punching, manipulating, etc., 
especially for large muscles [I. 279, 280, 386]. 

Shoes: great care in selection of shoes (child is 
flat-footed) [I. 266]. 

Habits: regularity in sleep, exercise and play, the 
same things always done in the same way and 
at the same time [I. 349, 350]. 



. MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

Senses: increasing mastery of colors, pleasure in 
colored pictures; sense of distance of near-by 
objects; sense of direction improving; sense 
of form, solidity, and roughness increasing 
during the year; pleasure in musical tones 
common by 18th month, tuneless chanting 
not unusual then; sensitiveness to pain and 
temperature and to taste and smell noticeable 
toward close of year. (It is not easy to state 
definite months as to when these mental 
powers begin to be manifest, as experience 
and natural gifts vary.) 

Speech: duritig 1st half of year, phrases; 2d half, 
sentences. Average number of words used 
by end of year, 200-250. 

Emotions: traces of personal temperament 
shown; moods, affected by teething; gen- 
erally increasing joy in life, if health is good; 
pleasure in physical sensations, color, and 
play noticeable [II. 139]. 

Memory strengthening but not continuous; vol- 
untary recollection not possible. 

Imitation of literal acts of adults. 

Reasoning develops through experience. 

Instincts: fears many and lively [II. 140-142]; 
anger explosive; curiosity as to causes [II. 
95]; play in transition from learning by han- 
dling to learning by imitating [II. 132]. 

Mental activities: passion for hand-touch and ex- 
perimenting; imitative, not imaginative play; 
sense of self appears and with it self-asser- 
tion, self-will, better self-amusement, more 
will power. 



MENTAL SUGGESTIONS 

Sense training: give all sorts of touch-experiences 
and opportunities to "do like mother"; let the 
child listen always to low speaking-voices and 
gentle singing and playing; have excursions 
for seeing, hearing, and touching [II. 36, 37]. 

Teach correct speech by example — no "baby talk" 
[II. 83-86]. 

Guard from unnecessary terrors [I. 308], and do 

not show fear yourself; avoid seasons of tem- 
per bv good health and not allowing teasing 
[IL 143, 144]. 

Drill in memory by inviting child to recall experi- 
ences; use action-drills, jingles, and motion- 
songs. 

Give simple toys for child's own experimentation, 
and enlarge intelligence by picture-books 
[II. 36]. 



72 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 



SECOND YEAR (From the First to the Second Birthday) 



SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Likes companionship of adults, but does not care 
for children of same age as playmates. 

Develops sense of self, so that he likes ownership 
of his own things [II. 248], and is capable of 
more self-amusement with them, but likes to 
watch adults and imitate them, talking, sing- 
ing, working. 

Spontaneous affection to kindred, but usually 
shyness with strangers. 



SOCIAL SUGGESTIONS 

Increase expressions of approbation and affection. 

Do more things with the child, but encourage 
reasonable persistence and concentration in 
his doing things alone [II. 236]. 

Do not encourage play with children except those 
of the home — this to be of non-stimulating 
nature and not too frequent. Insist that they 
carry out your own ideas of quietness, agree- 
ableness and cooperation [I. 387]. 



MORAL DEVELOPMENT 

What is approved by adults is right to the child. 
Tendency to selfishness and jealousy alternates 

with generous giving and affection, toward 

close of the year [I. 103-106]. 



MORAL SUGGESTIONS 
[L 91-93; II. 10-14] 

Habituate to a few simple requirements, without 
exceptions [I. 349-350, 355]. 

State clearly, first, what is required and be un- 
moved by entreaty, lament, or temper [II. 
176-178]. 

Teach self-control by helping child to refrain 
from crying, teasing, willfulness, temper, and 
by giving him time to make up his mind to 
obey. Don't drag him to a duty. 

Teach: 

Gentleness, by soft-speaking, and calmness 
of manner [II. 2]. 

Politeness, by never-failing courtesy to child 
as well as to adults, and by showing him 
what courteous words and acts are [I. 91, 
92-93, 104; II. 187]. 

Sympathy, by expressions of interest. Some- 
times encourage expression of pity, but be 
careful of too much emotional excitement 
in this [II. 139]. 

Unselfishness, by always accepting child's 
offer to "share" any special delicacy. Also 
by example. 

Emulation, by "showing how" [II. 139, 183]. 

Orderliness, by having corner, box, or drawer 
for child's tovs. and letting him put them 
away [I. 334; IL 10-11, 170, 173, 194]. 

Obedience, by gentle firmness, never by im- 
patient demand or catching up child and 
"putting him into place" [I. 355; II. 13, 42, 
171]. 

Helpfulness, by sending him on little errands. 



73 



"Do you know how the naturahst learns all the secrets of 
the forest, of plants, of birds, of beasts, of reptiles, of fishes, 
of the rivers and the sea? When he goes into the woods, 
the birds fly before him and he finds none; when he goes to 
the river bank, the fish and the reptile swim away and leave 
him alone. His secret is patience; he sits down, and sits still; 
he is a statue; he is a log. These creatures have no value for 
their time, and he must put as low a rate on his. By dint of 
obstinate sitting still, reptile, fish, bird, and beast, which all 
wish to return to their haunts, begin to return. He sits still; 
if they approach, he remains passive as the stone he sits upon. 
They lose their fear, they have curiosity too about him. By 
and by the curiosity masters the fear, and they come swim- 
ming, creeping, and flying toward him; and as he is still 
uninovable, they not only resume their haunts and their 
ordinary labors and manners, show themselves to him in 
their workday trim, but also volunteer some degree of ad- 
vances toward fellowship and good understanding with a 
biped who behaves so civilly and well. Can you not baffle 
the impatience and passion of the child by your tranquillity? 

"Can you not wait for him, as Nature and Providence do? 
Can you not keep for his mind and ways, for his secret, the 
same curiosity you give to the squirrel, snake, rabbit, and the 
sheldrake and the deer? He has a secret; wonderful methods 
in him; he is, — every child, — a new style of man; give him 
time and opportunity." — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



WHAT TO EXPECT THE SECOND YEAR 




MY LITTLE BOY MONTH BY MONTH* 



MRS. ANNA G. NOYES 



Thirteenth Month: 

Ran as well as walked. Climbed up and down 

stairs, holding my hand 
Climbed upstairs on his hands and knees alone. 

Fourteenth Month: 

Walked more, ran more, climbed more stairs 
On favorable days (February) walked in 

Riverside Park 
Dug up his first shovelful of dirt in Riverside 
Got up and down from a sitting or lying posi- 
tion to his feet without assistance of chair or 
person. 

Fifteenth and Sixteenth Months: 
Increased facility in all achievements. 

Seventeenth Month : 
Climbed onto dining table by means of a chair, 
without assistance or disaster. 

Eighteenth Month : 
Climbed everything climbable. 

Nineteenth Month : 
Climbed all about the park benches 
Hammered nails and hit them straight on the 
head most of the time 



Walked all the way up and down six flights of 

stairs, holding my hand and the banister 
Climbed to fourth step of a ladder alone 
Tried to jump while walking 

Twentieth Month: 
Ran and climbed, went up and down stairs with 
increasingly greater ease, fed himself and did 
not spill much. 
Twenty-first Month : 

Increased facility in all achievements. 
Twenty-second Month : 

More vigorous and sure in his activities. 
Twenty-third Month : 
Sprayed his own nose and throat while I „tood 
by to assist. 
Twenty-fourth Month : 
Blew his own nose 
Walked downstairs, holding to the banister, but 

pushing my hand away 
Helped mother about the house; carried dishes, 
manipulated broom and sweeper and carpet- 
beater, broke up maccaroni, and did several 
little errands for her 
Held absorbent cotton over his own eyes while 
mother dropped menthol in his nose. 



HOW THE SENSES DEVELOP 



BY 

THE EDITORS 



Seeing 
Before a child is a year old he begins to increase 
in his power of recognizing objects of very small 
size. By the twelfth month with some children, 
as much as a year later with others, printed letters 



* From "How I Kept My Baby Well,' 
mission of Dr. Guy M. Whipple, editor. 

KJJ.— 7 



begin to be sought out and recognized, the letter 
"O," of course, being the most easily discovered. 
Differences of form in plane figures have been 
noticed as early as the eighteenth month. 

The understanding of pictures as being repre- 

Used by per- 



by Anna G. Noyes, published by Warwick & York, Baltimore, 

75 



•?(> 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



sentations of faces and of other objects lias been 
noted by different observers as early as the eighth 
or tenth month. The recognition of faces in 
photographs seems to come at about the fifteenth 
month. Details, such as the eyes and feet, have 
been recognized at about the same time. The in- 
terest in the story which may be connected with 
a picture has been marked at various periods 
from the middle of the second year to the begin- 
ning of the third. 

The recognition of distance does not come quite 
so early. By the second half of the second year, 
a child has been known to think that the moon 
floated just beyond the reach of her arm, and 
that a tall man a hundred feet away seemed to be 
a boy much nearer. It has been estimated that 
the space around a child to which he attributes 
ideas of distance and size is now perhaps a mile. 

The conception of real sisc comes between the 
sixteenth month and the end of the second year, 
that being the range of time in which children 
learn to know the difference between the words 
"big" and "little." It seems true to say that small 
children feel a complete indifference to size in 
identifying objects. 

Young children do not feel much interest in 
solidity. They feel surfaces over for their text- 
ure, they like to feel them move under their hands 
and to work some change upon them, but have 
no curiosity as to their form. They may be 
taught by the end of the second year the principal 
solid figures. Through play they learn, also, 
some of the fundamental laws of physics. Some 
objects will stand, others will fall, others roll, 
some may be crushed, others not. Some, such as 
liquids, run freely and cannot be grasped, while 
others are immovable. 

Children are much later in recognizing color 
than we usually suppose. No proof has yet been 
shown that they have any color discrimination 
before the last half of the second year. Some 
time between the fifteenth and the eighteenth 
months they learn to name the difference between 
dark and liglit objects. At about the middle of 
the second year they are apt to make a sudden 
color discrimination, red, yellow, green, lud blue 
probably being the colors first distinguisl d, while 
violet, pink, and brown are among the la . Pleas- 
ure in colors at this time seems to depen on their 
light-richness and their warmth. 

Hearing 

The child of two months was found to be sen- 
sitive to musical notes. By the middle of the 
second year he finds occasional delight in tune- 
playing. This pleasure probably does not become 
continuous until about the end of the third year. 



Children are capable of keeping time, some of 
them as early as the twelfth month, others not 
until they are nearly three years old. Rhythm 
seems to impress earlier than melody. Rhymes 
and jingles please by their rhythm. The earliest 
period of recognizing a tune seems to be from the 
twentieth to the twenty-fifth month. Young chil- 
dren differ very much as to their capacity for 
taking the correct pitch. Some have done so as 
early as the eighth month, others not until the 
fourth year. Nearly all young children, from 
about the middle of the second year throughout 
early childhood, amuse themselves with a sort of 
"tuneless chanting or crooning of syllables." 
Many of them through their happy hours sing 
constantly. This crooning begins with a mono- 
tone, but by the third year it grows more varied, 
rhythmic, and modulated, until, while without 
any tune, it has a pleasing and musical effect. 
Sounds coming in vertical directions are located 
with difficulty and those coming horizontally with 
ease, even when they are distant. 

The ear comes into an importance which is 
destined to outstrip that of the eye as soon as the 
child begins to associate a given vocal sound 
with an object. The second year is the great 
period for the acquisition of language through 
imitation. 

Feeling 

Sensibility to pain remains low during the 
second year, and though it increases during the 
third, seems less than in an adult. The transitori- 
ness of the distress is remarkable. It is possible 
to distract a child easily by mental interests from 
pain, and in the gratification of curiosity he will 
undergo pain-feelings which seem to us moder- 
ately severe. 

The sense of temperature, too, seems to develop 
slowly. Children are. of course, sensitive to even 
moderate heat and cold, but they do not seem to 
remark them as tested by the hand until toward 
the end of the second year. 

Tasting 

The sense of taste is not careful during the first 
two years. There seem to be no violent dislikes 
during this period. Children do not begin to be 
very particular until about the middle of the third 
year. 

Smelling 

The progress of the sense of smell is less rapid 
than is the case with the other senses. While 
from six months onward children evince a lively 
enjoyment of the scent of flowers, they often ap- 
pear totally unaffected by odors which are offen- 
sive to adults. 



WHAT TO DO THE SECOND YEAR 



feo£><«. °»^g Pj) ^g°° °°-i>°^ fi 



PLAYTHINGS FOR THE SECOND YEAR 



BY 



MARY L. READ 



The material for sense-training tlirough this 
second year should he very like that of the first 
year. It should include a wide range of objects 
that he can handle, of different shapes, sizes, 
hardness, softness, the simple spectrum of colors. 
There should be noise-making toys, as given for 
the first year, and as much music as the family 
can afford. There is a stage when he delights in 
crumpling and tearing paper. 

If possible, provide at this stage the largest- 
size sheets of colored paper, in the spectrum col- 
ors, that can be purchased at any kindergarten 
supply-house. When the days arrive that he 
delights to take out and put in, the wooden insets 
such as Montessori uses will be a useful toy; or 
the wooden nests of boxes sold at the toy counter. 
A large milk bottle and objects small enough to 
be dropped into it — but too large for him to swal- 
low or put up his nose — will be useful. Such ob- 
jects may well include some of the colored wooden 
beads — about one-inch size. At about eighteen 
months he will delight in spending hours filling a 
bottle with sand, using a large spoon. This is 
valuable training in motor coordination. 

During this year play with building blocks be- 
gins. It will require some care to provide blocks 
of the best educational value, and some searching 
to find them. They should preferably be plain 
cubes and brick-shapes, the cubes not less than 
two inches and the bricks not less than 1x2x2, 
some of them being 1x2x4. These utilize the 
hand and forearm muscles. A still larger size 
can be cut and planed smooth by the carpenter ; 
this will utilize the trunk, back, and upper arm 
muscles. These can be made as large as paving 
bricks. A set of blocks in graduated sizes are 
also useful during this and the succeeding year. 
Some of the blocks can be stained or painted in 



the spectrum tones, to cultivate the observation 
and enjoyment of color. 

The sense of rhythm can be cultivated by hold- 
ing baby's hands and clapping in time to music, or 
swaying his body gently backward and forward 
or to right or left while he sits on the edge of a 
table, or swinging his feet while he sits on a table 
or chair. Care must be taken to do this only a 
few minutes at a time, in order to avoid fatigue. 

The arm and leg exercise may be dispensed 
with now, and games or play and free space for 
his own activities may take their place. During 
this year the child who is wheeled about in a car- 
riage, instead of being allowed to creep, roll, 
walk, climb, is being greatly handicapped. When 
the ground is wet or cold, the porch or an open- 
air room, with ample sunlight, should be utilized. 

During this, and during the first year, the floor 
of the porch, room, or pen should be covered 
with a clean blanket to protect the child from 
dust and germs, and in cool weather from the 
cold surface and floor drafts. If wraps are 
needed, a sweater and knitted leggings give 
greater freedom than a coat. For the same rea- 
son rompers are preferable to dresses. 

Some time during this year the child begins to 
climb up and down stairs. If the steps are broad 
and not too high for him to manage easily, and 
if they are not laid with dusty coverings, he can 
be taught how to go down — backwards — and up 
without falling. To spend an hour a day for a 
week in teaching him how to do this, until he has 
gained facility and confidence, will be valuable 
physical and moral training. If the stairs are too 
narrow, steep, or long, then he must be denied this 
pleasure, for the sake of his neck, and the stairs 
protected from his invasion by a gate or other 
secure blockade. 



77 



78 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Apparatus for this year may advantageously 
include the following: 

A swing with a broad seat, having the corners 
rounded, placed low enough for him to climb in 
and out of it himself with ease. Until he has 
gained facility in climbing in and out. a rug should 
be placed beneath it to minimize bruises when he 
falls. 

A low stile or winding stair, having three to six 
steps about three inches deep and two inches high, 
adapted to the dimensions of little people. 

A low ladder, firmly nailed against a support, 
having two to five rungs at six-inch intervals. 

Even at the beginning of this year the child is 
able to play some very simple games, and this 
tendency should be cultivated, not only for the 
fun, but also because it means training of the will 
and of concentration, even for the five or ten 
minutes that his capacity now permits. He can 
roll the ball and catch it as it is rolled to him on 
the floor. When able to stand steadily he can 
throw the big football, which requires both arms. 
He can play at hiding, although it will be in his 
fourth or fifth year before he has sufficient con- 
trol to stay hidden until he is found. 



He can be taught obedience and courtesy by 
little games, handing over whatever is in his hand 
when requested to. "Give it to mother." or "Give 
it to father." He can be taught some of the sim- 
plest finger-plays, such as the old nursery classic, 
"Knock at the door." or the kindergarten delight, 
"Here's a ball for baby." 

Some toys are injurious for children. Espe- 
cially so are toys that are germ-carriers, such 
as whistles, woolly dogs, rag-dolls, or other un- 
painted toys not waterproof, unwashable toys, or 
those made in sweatshops and unsanitary fac- 
tories. Live cats and dogs carry germ diseases, 
especially in the city. Little carts or pushers that 
make constant clanging and musical toys with a 
harsh, metallic sound, are a strain on his nerves. 
Pictures that are rude and ugly and coarse like- 
wise distort his sense of truth and of beauty. 
Flimsy toys, soon broken, weaken his sense of 
property values. 

Give him simple, washable toys, such as dolls 
with good faces and animals of wood, celluloid, 
or natural rubber ; toys that he can do things 
with, as balls, plain blocks, sand molds, and large 
wooden beads. 



PLAYTHINGS. HOMEMADE 



BY 



MRS. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER 



So MANY of our American farmhouses are situ- 
ated in very rigorous climates that a good many 
mothers will not think the out-of-doors a pos- 
sible playground in winter time. This is less 
true than they are apt to think. On almost any 
sunny day in Winter, little children, if warmly 
dressed, will benefit far more by a brisk, romping, 
active half-hour's running and jumping than city 
babies do in their swathed, motionless outing in 
a baby carriage. And when really bad weather 
drives them in, as it should do very seldom, the 
country mother has a great advantage in space 
over the city one. For there is about a farm 
nearly always some corner, a woodshed, a corner 
of the barn, an attic, or an unused room, where 
little folks may romp and play actively. If neces- 
sary the sacred spare room is better used for 
this purpose than kept in idle emptiness. And all 
the varieties of handwork are resources for rainy 
days. 

For, as the children advance beyond real baby- 
hood and the mere need for constant romping and 



climbing and running like little animals, their 
instinctive desire to use their hands increases, and 
this is an instinct which should be encouraged in 
every possible way. Just as the wise mother sees 
to it that they are provided when babies with 
ample chance to roll and kick and tumble, so when 
they are older she is never more pleased than 
when they are doing something with their hands; 
and she has all around her ample material for be- 
ginning this handwork. A pan of beans or shelled 
corn, with a wide-mouthed Ijottle and a spoon, will 
keep a two- or three-year-old happy and absorbed 
for a long time. A pack of cards to be shuffled 
or used to build houses is another "plaything" 
which does not need to be specially bought. A 
pan of bran and a handful of clothespins occupy 
even a baby of fourteen months, as he pushes 
the clothespins into the bran and pulls them 
out. I 

A big rag doll, the size of a small child, is 
easy to make and stuff with cotton. The most 
rudimentary scratches serve to indicate the eyes, | 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



79 



nose, and month, and the lips and cheeks can be 
colored realistically with any red jelly. All chil- 
dren love a big doll of this sort, and delight to 
dress it and undress it in their own clothes. 
They learn in this way to handle buttons and but- 
tonholes, and to master the difficulties of shoes 
and belts and sleeves. A new corn-cob pipe and 
a small bowl of soapsuds mean harmless fun for 
the five-year-old, which is always watched yith 
rapture by the littler ones. 

And then there are blocks, perennial blocks, 
which need not at all be bought from a store. A 
father with a plane and a saw can plane a couple 
of two-by-four stocks and in about half an hour 
make as many square or oblong blocks (2x4x6 
inches is a good size) as any child needs for his 
play. These large blocks not only cost practically 
nothing, but are much better for the little chil- 
dren to use than the smaller, expensive kinds that 
are sold; and the set will outlast a large family of 
strenuous children. 

A collection of empty spools of different sizes 
is a treasure for the child of three who will re- 
joice in stringing them on a cord passed through 
a bodkin. When he is a little older and has 
learned skill in this exercise he may graduate to 
stringing buttons with a real needle and thread. 
On baking day a small lump of dough (made less 
sticky by working more flour into it) which can 
be rolled and played with on a bit of smooth board 
is great fun for little folks; and let the mother 
constantly remember that any fun which is se- 
cured by using the hands not only makes the child 
happy, but is of educational value. 

On washing-day a basin of soapy water and 
some bits of cloth to be washed out will fill many 
happy minutes. The oilcloth apron is as in- 
dispensable for this play as for the outdoor water 
play and for clay modeling. This last is perhaps 
the most eternally interesting of the indoor oc- 
cupations for little children. If the clay is kept 
on a bit of oilcloth on a low table, it is not an 
untidy element in a kitchen. 

If dried peas are soaked for a few hours they 



are soft enough to be pierced by a needle and can 
be strung by four- and five-year-olds into neck- 
laces and bracelets, or they can be put together 
with wooden toothpicks into many fascinating 
shapes. Dried watermelon and sunflower seeds 
can be used in the same way. A box of dried 
corncobs can convert a free corner of the floor 
into a farm with log-cabin house, rail fences, and 
barns. Trees can be simulated by twigs stuck 
into bits of clay to hold them upright, and farm 
animals can be rudely fashioned out of clay, 
dusted over with domestic coloring material to 
make them realistic — flour for sheep, cocoa for 
brown horses and cows, charcoal for black ani- 
mals, and then baked in the kitchen oven to make 
them firm. 

A rag-bag into which the children may dive 
and delve is a resource for rainy hours, and if 
the mother is at hand to keep an eye on the proc- 
ess and tell what colors and materials are. to sug- 
gest matching those colors and stuffs which are 
identical and to make agreeable combinations with 
others, rag-bag hour is as educational as any 
exercise in a carefully run modern school. The 
country mother has here again a great advantage 
over many city mothers in that her work is always 
at home, and of a nature which allows her to 
supervise the children's play without giving up 
all her time to them. 

Provision should be made in the case of little 
children for their desire to handle all sorts of 
objects; the desire which makes them enjoy so 
greatly a tumbling over of mother's workbasket. 
There is no need to let them upset that when 
there are in every country house such a vast 
number of other articles which are not hurt by 
baby hands — spoons, tin pans, boxes, tongs, 
clothes baskets, and darning eggs. Furthermore, 
instead of being told "Don't touch!" they should 
be encouraged to learn how neatly and competently 
to perform such ordinary operations as opening 
and shutting drawers and doors and boxes and 
gates, screwing the tops on cans, hanging up 
clothes, and taking off rubbers. 



SOME NURSERY ARTS AND CRAFTS 



MRS. HARRIET HICKOX HELLER 



Before the baby is a year old, he will, of course, 
have grown quite active and be pleased with 
variations of "Hide-and-seek," of which "Peek- 
a-boo," being played by the mother from beiiind 
her hand, is perhaps the first to attract his at- 



tention. Later he will like to hide behind the 
handkerchief, still later his pillow, and then come 
into the ordinary forms of the game. "Pat a 
cake" is quite an achievement, and when the time 
comes that he can bring his hands together when 



8o 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



mother says the words, he has made an important 
step in the correlation of mind and body. He 
can point to his head and his feet, and revels in 
"Chin-chopper." The folk games of "Shoe the 
old horse" and "Ride a cock-horse" have their 
place in his experience about this time. 

The Value of a Baby-Pen 

A "pen" is especially important to a child 
through the second year of his life, and to the 
very active child it is valuable somewhat earlier 
than this. In some particulars this second year is 
one that is especially trying. The sense of power 
is developing within the small citizen who has 
learned but little as to ways and means of ex- 
pressing himself. Of the effect of his own 
strength he is ignorant. He strikes like a pugi- 
list and annihilates ruthlessly. If he goes directly 
from his nursery-bed to his "own little pen," it is 
an extension of space, and he feels in it no re- 
striction, since he never has had the full range 
of the room or house. Here he is safe at the 
time when children begin to drag off table covers 
and bring upon themselves unforeseen catastro- 
phies. He soon learns to pull himself up by hold- 
ing on to the little fence, but no sooner than his 
natural inclination and strength make him ready 
for this achievement. He will teach himself to 
walk inside his railing and will gain much of the 
knowledge which it is necessary for him to learn 
with reference to material things by the experi- 
ments which he makes with the toys. 

His mother must help him to interpret life 
through a few blocks with which he can pound 
and hammer. He will, of course, hurt himself, 
but not seriously, and he must learn. A very 
strong little two-wheeled cart which is pulled by 
a string (not a tongue) will give him amusement.* 
The stuffed toys, teddy bears, dogs, and dolls help 
him to grow. A rubber ball too large to roll from 
under the enclosure would be worth while. Toys 
that a child of this age can possibly break should 
be used only on occasions when they can be 
guarded. A tin pan and a big spoon are some- 



* A card-board box with a string tied through one end 
makes a fine wagon. — 7. E. B, 



times very amusing. Later on in the year two 
pans, partially full of sawdust or bran, will some- 
times keep a child of this age busy for a long 
time. He will dip material from one pan to the 
other and then back. A sheet placed on the floor 
may be picked up by the four corners when the 
game is over, and thus all the muss may be carried 
away. You can always tell when the game is 
over, because, instead of putting ingredients from 
one pan into the other, he will begin to put it on 
the floor or throw it about aimlessly. 

Educational Experience 

It is a valuable experience for a child of this 
age to play in his bath water. He will spend 
some time in dipping the liquid from one recep- 
tacle to another. Bright colored objects, among 
them a prism, should be in sight of this little chap, 
and he should be able to handle them when he 
wants to do so. He should be allowed to touch 
everything that he sees and desires if it can pos- 
sibly be arranged without injury to him. Even 
the proverbial "looking-glass and hammer" may 
be inspected, separately, under proper supervision. 
Highly colored pictures can be placed, at first out 
of his reach, but low enough so that he can look 
at them. As his interest grows, he might have 
the pictures in hand to "look at." He will not 
tear books as long as he is interested in a picture. 
When his interest ceases, it might be again placed 
out of reach. 

A "little teeter" may be made as a part of the 
Dutch pen equipment by fastening to each end of 
a somewhat flexible board, cleats about three 
inches in height. He can stand on this, hold to 
his fence and get the benefit of the spring when 
he has reached the stage where he needs some- 
thing else to do. A little chair and table may be 
used and removed on occasions. Baby will be 
learning new games during this year. "Hide-and- 
seek" will grow a better game. If he talks early, 
he may perhaps have the first Mother Goose 
rhymes and will enjoy some romping plays. This 
second year is the Ijest time for the real finger- 
play which follows the familiar folk games men- 
tioned (on page 46) with the first year. 



SENSE-PLAY WITH MARGARET 



BY 



MRS. RHEA SMITH COLEMAN 



There is, in my opinion, no training so important 
as sense-training, and yet none so simple, inex- 
pensive and altogether pleasurable. Do you not 
know that the success of the man in his business 
or profession depends very largely upon the 
ready response of his senses to the things about 
him ? And yet we find that in nine cases out of 
ten, yes, ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the 
man whose senses are keen and alert is the one 
who in early childhood has been trained to make 
the best use of them. 

Touch-and-Learn 

The first sense to be developed in the baby is 
that of touch. You are familiar with the marvel- 
ous way in which Helen Keller's sense of touch 
was trained. It would scarcely be worth while 
for us to develop one sense to such a high point 
of efficiency when our boys and girls have ears 
and eyes with which they can gain knowledge. 
Yet I believe they would be more efficient in later 
life if we gave more time to the training of this 
particular sense. 

When Margaret was a little baby, I recited 
such verses to her as, "Creep-a-Mouse," "This 
Little Pig Went to Market," "Eye Winker, Tom 
Tinker," suiting the action to the word. These 
develop the sense of touch in the different parts 
of the body. Later on, when she began to reach 
for things, I put near her objects of different 
form and surface. 

After Margaret was a year old, I began to col- 
lect a box of articles of various sizes, shapes, 
quality, etc. There were pieces of celluloid, 
aluminum, mirrors, and stones, to teach smoothness 
of surface; sandpaper, rough stones, unplaned 
pieces of wood to teach roughness of surface; 
pieces of wood and steel for hardness; cotton 
flannel, wool, and fur for softness; and long and 
short pieces of wood, string, and cardboard; 
large and small clothespins, balls, and nuts; sharp 
and blunt pins and pencils ; straight and crooked 
pieces of wire; heavy and light weights; round, 
square, oblong, cubical, and cylindrical objects. 

It might be well to add that some of these ob- 
jects were for use at first only when an older 
person was present. Margaret has always en- 
joyed playing with these things. She put her 
hands into the box, drew out an object, felt it, 



and then told whether it was rough or smooth, 
hard or soft, long or short, round or square, etc. 

"Don't Touch" 

These words are seldom heard in our home. 
On the contrary, Margaret has been encouraged to 
handle things about her. Our home is first of all 
for her education, and, though the windows and 
doors may have finger-marks and the books and 
sofa-cushions become somewhat soiled, they are 
hers to handle and, by so doing, gain knowledge. 
This privilege has been a wonderful help in de- 
veloping her sense of touch. She has been taught 
that she must be very careful when she handles 
anything that does not belong to her, and that 
when in another's home she must not handle any- 
thing unless given permission to do so. For the 
sake of discipline, I purchased some plants which 
she was not allowed to touch. I explained to her 
that to touch them would blight them and make 
them less beautiful, but that she might help me 
water them and watch them grow. 

"He That Hath Ears to Hear Let Him 
Hear" 

The sense of hearing develops very early. My 
first efforts at training Margaret's sense of hear- 
ing began when she was but a few weeks old. I 
made it possible for her to hear much sweet, soft 
music, sang songs to her, and took her often where 
she could hear the sounds and songs of Mother 
Nature. 

When but a few months old, my baby would lie 
very quiet when she heard soft music, but when 
a loud, fast tune was played she would kick and 
wave her hands in an effort to keep time with 
the music. I seldom used the loud, fast pieces, 
because they had a tendency to overstimulate her, 
while the quiet music was soothing to her nervous 
system. At the age of eight months, Margaret 
would be so rejoiced at the sound of the Victrola 
that she would pat a cake with the music. 

When my little girl was three months old I 
secured some small bells of dift'erent tones (such 
as one can purcliase at the five-and-ten-cent 
store) and hung them over her bed. She would 
raise her hands and strike them. In this way 
she learned to recognize different tones. 



8i 



82 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



After Margaret was a year old I continued the 
use of the bells, having dressed them in red, yel- 
low, green, and blue skirts. She soon learned 
that the blue one sounded different from the red 
one, the yellow from the green, etc. Through 
the second year there were few days that I did 
not play the Victrola. I chose such records as 
"Mother Goose Songs," sung by Elizabeth 
Wheeler ; Riley's "There, Little Girl, Don't Cry," 
sung by Evan Williams ; "The Star-Spangled 
Banner,"' by Pryor's Band; "Rockin' Time," and 
"Dusk Baby," to the tune of Dvorak's "Hu- 
moresque," sung by Olive Kline. The tune and 
rhythm of these are simple, and the words Mar- 
garet quickly learned. The continued repetition 
of these melodies made them become a very 
part of her little life, so that I was not surprised 
to find her, before the age of two, swinging her 
dolly back and forth in her arms, as she said, 
"Putting baby doll to sleep" in perfect time with 
"Rockin' Time" as it was played on the Victrola. 

Margaret's Musical Activities 

Now that she had grasped the meaning of 
rhythm in music, I used every means to develop it. 
I would dance with her, helping her to keep step 
with the music. I would clap my hands in time 
with the music and she would pat a cake in imita- 
tion of me. Whenever I played a record, I would 
say, "This is march-music, one, two, three, four," 
or "Waltz time, one, two, three," or "A lullaby to 
put the baby to sleep."* At about two years of 
age, Margaret began to memorize little pieces and 
songs, and the first ones learned were those we 
had played so often. Now she sings several little 
songs with the Victrola and keeps not only the 
time but the tune as well. At the age of three 
she recognizes a number of selections as well as 
the voices of the singers: "Santa Lucia," sung 
by Hamlin; "Caro Nome," "Thou Brilliant Bird," 
and "Romeo and Juliet," sung by Galli-Curci ; 
"Listen to the Mocking Bird," sung by Alma 
Gluck, and others. 

A short time ago, after much coaxing on the 
part of Margaret, we taught her to operate the 
Victrola, and it has increased her interest many 
fold. She thinks she is a big girl because she can 
change the records, put on the needle and even 
wind the machine alone. This privilege with its 
added interest has sharpened her ear, so that in- 
variably she knows when the last bars of the 
music have been reached and will run toward the 
machine in order to be there when the record is 
finished. 



* Note the parallel suggestions in Mrs. Seymour's article 
on "Music for the Babies," page 87. 



Margaret's Mother Sings to Her 

Then again, I have always sung many songs to 
my little girl, and with the possible exception of 
story-telling, I think there has been no one thing 
that has drawn us so close together. She often 
says to me, "I love you. Mamma, because you sing 
to me." A song will so often remove the pout 
and bring the smile we all love to see. I have 
not had a piano, and, as I am not able to get the 
tune of a piece of music without hearing it, I 
have in many cases made up tunes of my own. A 
mother can often compose music which suits her 
boy's or girl's voice better than that written by 
more accomplished musicians. I sing to Margaret 
many of the "Mother Goose Songs," Einilie Pouls- 
son's "Finger-Plays," Stevenson's "Swing Song," 
"Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," "Oh, Sun- 
shine," "Farmer in the Dell," "Did you Ever See 
a Lassie," and "The Star-Spangled Banner." I 
sing these songs when I am about my work and 
Margaret is playing around me, when we are on 
walks, or at any and all times. 

I have taught Margaret to hear and love the 
sounds and music of Nature. We were happily 
located on the edge of a suburb of Pittsburgh, 
so that we have had ready access to the country. 
Every day when the weather is at all favorable 
we take our walk to the woods or hills. I often 
say to Margaret, "Stop and listen." Then I ask 
her what she has heard. If there are sounds which 
she hasn't heard, I call her attention to them ; and 
now she talks to me of the rippling of the brook, 
the singing of the birds, the rustling of the leaves, 
and the "woo-woo" of the wind. She enjoys the 
rumble of the thunder and notes the contrast be- 
tween it and the soft patter of the rain on the 
window-pane. This music of Nature is each day 
teaching her the harmony of notes, the sweetness 
of tone, and the contrast of sounds, when Nature 
is at peace and when she is disturbed by storm, 
which no other training could give. 

"Eyes and No Eyes" 

You are, no doubt, familiar with this book, 
edited by O'Shea, in which he describes the wealth 
of pleasure and knowledge that was opened up 
to the boy William on a walk through the country, 
because he was ever alert to see and his mind 
open to understand ; while to Robert, whose sense- 
life seemed unawakened, it was uninteresting and 
meaningless. We contrast the attitude of the 
boys, and yet don't you agree with me that the 
difference was because one mother had trained 
her boy from the time he was a babe in her arms 
to use his eyes, while the other had neglected this 
all-important duty? 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



63 



Before Margaret was a year old I began to 
teach her to distinguish objects and to select one 
particular object from a group. I used blocks, 
bells, papers, etc., of different colors, and when 
she played with a red bell, I called it a red bell; 
the same with the blue, yellow, and green, until 
she soon learned to select the color I would ask 
for and hand it to me. * 

The objects with which she was surrounded and 
played were never just "playthings" to her. They 
were individualized. I would name them as she 
played with them. Often I carried her about the 
room and pointed out different objects. A picture 
of Sir Galahad was Sir Galahad to her, and not 
just one of the pictures on the wall; a dog was a 
dog, not just an animal ; a bluebird was a bluebird, 
not just a bird; therefore, at the age of one year, 
Margaret would hand or point out to me any one 
of seventy-five or more objects. She distinguished 
between the pictures of six different birds, several 
animals, and knew the primary colors. 

We Take a Walk Together 

I will describe to you an afternoon walk through 
Eden Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the early 
part of Margaret's second year, which will give 
you an idea of how her sense of sight was de- 
veloped at this period. The top of her carriage 
was down, so that she could look about without 
changing her position. We were just started 
when Margaret said, "See baby. Mamma." She 
had spied a baby across the street. A little farther 
on she noticed a horse, a dog, then an automobile, 



* The child must not only learn to feel color differences, 
but also intellectually to perceive and recognize each color, 
and then learn the name and associate the color name with 
the color. This is all very difficult and requires much ex- 
perience. The colors that seem to be first distinguished are 
red and yellow. The child's eyes seem to be impressed by 
the heavy and powerful ether waves of the red and yellow 
lights, while the faster and lighter green and blue waves 
are probably seen by him as gray. The child, like the sav- 
age, is first attracted by the bright colors and broad contrasts, 
and only slowly learns to distinguisli the more delicate shades. 
The world to him must be one grand mosaic of colors until 
he learns that these different masses of color are different 
objects at different points in space. 

From the world of colors the child passes to the discrimi- 
nation of tlie world of form. He first must distinguish color, 
then different areas of color or surfaces. After differences 
of the areas of surfaces are discriminated, he begins to per- 
ceive different objects. He begins to get knowledge of the 
outer world. He begins to see a world in space and grad- 
ually to learn the names of objects and take attitudes toward 
them. 

The child should first be led to distinguish between differ- 
ent objects, forms, and colors. Contrasts should be presented 
together, discrimination developed — bright and striking color 
contrasts first, then fine shades; widely different objects, then 
those more alike. Drawing, clay modeling, building with 
blocks, all these help in learning form, and always there 
should be close observation and contact with the varied and 
irregular forms of nature. 

Before the child is introduced to books and book learning 
he should^ have a subprimary course to train his senses and 
develop his motor powers. He must learn to see the world 
before he can imagine it from books — first the seen objects, 
then the imagined world. — Frank W. Shindler, Ph.D., in "The 
Sense of Sight"; tised by permission of the publishers, 
Moffat, Yard &■ Company, New York. 



etc. Each time I stopped, allowed her to look at 
the object as long as she wished, and at the same 
time talked to her about it. We passed by a lawn 
where there were some beautiful flowers. She 
did not notice them, so I stopped, called her at- 
tention to them and spoke of their color. We 
went on and soon entered the park. The first thing 
of note was a beautiful concrete bridge, to which 
I called Margaret's attention; then to the pond 
with its water-lilies; to the river far below with 
its boats. Then, beneath the bridge, to the con- 
servatory of flowers, the reservoir, the Art 
Museum. Some of these things she noticed and 
others I called to her attention. Each day she 
noticed some new things and always something 
which I had pointed out to her on the last trip. 

One caution must be observed. Do not point 
out too many things on one trip. One or two is 
enough. How often we see the mother out with 
her baby who during the entire walk will not call 
his attention to a single thing or even appear 
•interested when he makes discoveries that mean 
so much to the development of his senses. It is 
nothing short of a crime against his babyhood. 

Such trips as these became much more valu- 
able and interesting after Margaret's second 
birthday, when the carriage was dispensed with, 
and we went walking together. She then, as well 
as I, was eager to push aside the bushes and find 
the nests of the birds and to see whether there 
were eggs or birdies in them. Then Margaret 
would look well at the mother-bird, who no doubt 
would be scolding because we were near her 
babies, and give to her her proper name. In this 
way my little girl learned where the different 
birds built their nests, the color and number of 
eggs they lay and many of their habits. With 
equal diligence and interest she sought the frogs 
and fishes in the brook ; pushed aside the grass to 
find the strawberries; and looked into the trees 
to discover the red, yellow, and green apples. 

Margaret and I enjoy looking at the sky. We 
talk together about the black rain-clouds and the 
fleecy white ones. We try to see who is first to 
find the moon as it rises, and how many colors we 
can distinguish in the summer sunset. The stars, 
too, are our friends, and very soon I am going to 
begin to teach Margaret their different arrange- 
ments in the constellations. 

While on shopping trips downtown, on visits to 
the Zoo, the Museum, or calls upon friends, we 
are ever watchful that nothing of interest may 
escape us. In our own home Margaret has grown 
familiar with the arrangements of pictures, fur- 
niture, etc., and if the position of anything is 
changed during her absence, she notices it im- 
mediately upon entering the room. I have also 



84 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



taught her to observe people's dress, and she will 
invariably notice if her daddy comes down in the 
morning wearing a necktie she hasn't seen for 
several days. 

A very pleasurable play-hour that Margaret and 
I often pass, which has borne abundant fruit in 
developing for her an observing eye, is the game of 

Little Sharp-Eyes 

which we play in a number of ways. We take 
such pictures as those found in the "Most Popular 
Mother Goose Songs," with illustrations by Mabel 
Betsy Hill, or any picture in which there are a 
number of objects, but in which each object is 



distinct, and see who can find the most object.?. 
Then we count the things in store windows or 
along the road or street. 

Smell and taste, though less important senses, 
can be developed with no loss of time. I en- 
courage Margaret to smell flowers, perfumes, and 
spices, and compare their fragrance. I likewise 
help her to note the different taste of foods by 
telling her as she tastes them that sugar is sweet, 
lemon sour, aloes bitter. A good play for de- 
veloping these senses is to arrange a number of 
things of different odors and tastes. Allow a 
certain lengtli of time, and have a number of chil- 
dren try to see, by smelling and tasting, who can 
correctly name the greatest number. 



PLAYS AND GAMES FOR THE SECOND YEAR 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



During this year baby directs his greatest energy 
toward creeping and walking. He knows the 
best way to develop his body and mind is by the 
use of his arms and legs to find new toys and new 
scenes of action. 

Sense Games 

A child in his second year is interested in see- 
ing, hearing, feeling, and tasting, and all the ob- 
jects within reach become possible material for 
sense-training. 

Besides the furniture, spoons, and other familiar 
things which the child delights to use in his search 
for knowledge, he can be supplied with toys, such 
as a red and a blue ball, a wooden ball and a soft 
ball, a gong and a hammer, a bottle with flaked 
rice and, later, a box with stones. These two lat- 
ter articles will afford endless amusement if the 
children are allowed to empty and refill and shake 
them. A newspaper is a very good plaything if 
an adult is watching: a baby likes to hear and feel 
the tearing. Only a few toys are necessary, as 
sliding a bureau drawer in and out, dropping a 
toothpick through a cane-seated chair, or folding 
and unfolding a towel, will play-educate a child 
of this age. 

Movement Plays 

For the principal movement-play during tliis 
year, mother may supply steady chairs and a clean 
pair of stairs, also a protecting hand. Patience 
is about the most important adult help needed for 
exercise. Let the child pull himself up and walk 
as much as -he will without urging. Most chil- 



dren are so proud of their accomplishment and 
their muscles are pleading for so much exercise 
that the little ones will easily overtax themselves 
if persuasion is used. Lead a child to find out 
what he can do and then supply opportunities to 
do it, is a fairly safe rule, when applied with 
mother-sense. 

A child enjoys repeating the same plays over 
and over, but he also enjoys varying a familiar 
one. Father often trots the baby on his knee; 
this little play may gradually gain variety by 
changing it in the following way : 

The first play and chant may be : 

"Walking, walking, walking. 
Go. pony, go. 
Walking, walking, walking, 
Whoa, pony, whoa." 

When baby has become sure of his balance, 
father may increase the speed of the pony: 

"Trotting, trotting, trotting, 
Go. pony, go ; 
Trotting, trotting, trotting, 
Whoa, pony, whoa." 

Weeks later the child will be delighted to find 
that another change can be made by making the 
pony gallop. The completed play would be in 
five acts: 

1. Walking. 

2. Trotting. 

3. Galloping. 

4. Trotting. 

5. Walking. 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



85 



The arm-stretching can be accompanied with an 
interpretative rhyme : 

"So big is the darling baby, 

She seems like a giant tall, 
And now she's so very tiny. 
She's a little fairy small. 

"And now she's a shadow growing 

So big and so straight and slim, 
And now she's a darling girlie. 
For kisses to nestle in." 

The play of "Down, Up" used in the first year 
can become more vigorous and end with a toss: 

"There was an old woman 
Tossed up to the moon, 
She scattered the stars 

With her own little broom." 

Tossing and twirling can be combined, accom- 
panied with the Mother Goose rhyme : 

"Dance little baby, dance so high. 
Never mind, baby, mother is nigh. 
Crow and caper, caper and crow. 
There, little baby, up there you go. 
Up to the ceiling and down to the ground. 
Backward and forward, around and around. 
Dance, little baby, and mother will sing. 
With a sweet little song, ding, ding, ding." 

Children of this age like to "hustle tilings 
about" for the sake of proving their power. They 
like to roll over and over and to move in all the 
different ways that they can invent. 

When bathing is found tedious, small floating 
toys, such as boats, sticks, sponges, frogs, ducks, 
will help to pass the time away. (Older children 
can make these by pasting cut forms on button- 
molds.) 

Dramatic Play 

Mothers know many simple little actions that 
baby enjoys and that really are the beginning of 



dramatic play. She says, "Wash your face," "Go 
to sleep," "Comb your hair," "Put on your hat," 
and baby makes the appropriate motions. W^hen 
he is a little older she will say "Bow like a gentle- 
man," "Take off your hat to the lady," "Rock the 
baby to sleep." 

Ball Plays 

The child one year old delights in seeing the 
ball roll, and it excites him to see it roll in his 
direction. Toward the latter part of this year he 
can control his movements enough to attempt to 
return it, although his aim is very poor. 

Let the little one have a large ball to grasp with 
the arms, to carry about, and to roll. This will 
strengthen the arms as a small ball does the 
hands. 

Hang a soft ball at the end of a cord. This 
may be used to swing, to drag, to twirl, to pound. 
As the baby makes one of these motions the 
mother may sing as long as it is repeated: 



i 



^K 



3 



^ 



Swing, Bwmg, swing, swing 



^^m^^m 



Twirl- ing, twirl - ing, twirl - ing, twirl - iog, twirl 



i 



^1 



Pound, poond 

When the child understands the rhythm and 
words, the mother may add to the play by singing 
one of these directions when she gives the ball to 
the baby, so that he for a moment follows the 
suggestion of the word. 



A CHILD'S FIRST INTEREST IN PICTURES 



BY 

THE EDITORS 



"He hasn't got him yet !" was the little boy's de- 
lighted daily report after looking in his nursery 
book and discovering that the crocodile in the pic- 
ture had not yet caught up with the pickaninny 
that he had been chasing. 

"Why don't they get to church?" was another 
youngster's inquiry after he had for several weeks 
turned to Boughton's "Pilgrinis Going to Church," 
and wondered why they did not arrive. 



A third child put his hand protectingly over the 
figure of a kid to protect it from an eagle, in a 
picture. A child of kindergarten age has been 
known to try to feed a pictured animal. 

At first. Dr. Amy Eliza Tanner* tells us, the 
baby acts like an animal with regard to represen- 
tations of objects. He thinks the reflection in the 



* .\niy Eliza Tanner, author of "Child: 
Feeling, and Doing." 



His Thinking, 



86 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



glass is a real thing, as the animal does the well- 
painted picture, and as the savage thinks that his 
reflection in the water is his spirit-double. 

These remarks suggest the rather surprising 
fact that pictures to a small child are not symbols, 
but are a part of his living world. At the begin- 
ning he notes the similarity between the house- 
hold pet and the pictured cat more than the differ- 
ence, and it is a long time before he grasps the 
idea that the latter is only a symbol. 

Predominant Interest in Persons and 
Animals 

Children often develop very strong but, as a 
rule, transient preferences for pictures of differ- 
ent kinds — much as they do for toys and play- 
things. At first, a child will pass by all pictures 
except those of people. A year later, a picture 
of a cat may be the same child's favorite ; and 
still later, a picture of a large monkey wearing a 
gown, glasses, and a cap affords greatest delight. 
Miss Shinn* says that her niece's interest in pic- 
tures (middle of nineteenth month) "narrowed to 
an almost exclusive desire for pictures of birds, 
which was for some days a passion; and for 
weeks to 'see birdy in book' was a frequent ap- 
peal." Dr. David R. Major's record f contains 
many statements like that just quoted from Miss 
Shinn. "At first, pictures of human beings, es- 
pecially babies and children, were R.'s favorites. 
Later, pictures of animals — cats, dogs, cows, ele- 
phants, and elk with great horns — pictures of 
locomotives, and certain Mother Goose pictures — 
the cow jumping over the moon was one — each 
had their weeks or months when they were fre- 
quently called for, pored over, and 'talked' to 
with great pleasure by the half hour." 

Ninety-nine per cent of the first drawings of 
children are said to include the human face. Their 
affections for ready-made pictures soon become 
evident; they like living creatures, folks, and ani- 
mals and birds, and they like them best in action. 
They like only story-pictures. 

Little Attention to Details 

A number of observers have remarked that chil- 
dren are indifferent to the positions of the pic- 
tures they are handling or examining, that they 
do not mind whether a picture is right side up or 
wrong. Sullyt quotes from a friend, a psychol- 
ogist, "that his little girl, aged three and a half, 
does not mind whether she looks at a picture the 
right way up or the wrong; she points out what 

• Millicent W. Shinn, author of "The Biography of a 
Baby." 

t "First Steps in Mental Growth.'* 

t James Sully, author of "Children's Ways," "Outlines of 
Psychology," * Studies of Childhood," etc. 



you ask for — eyes, feet, hands, tail, and so forth — 
about equally well whichever way up the picture 
is, and never asks to have it put right that she 
may see it better." 

In general, they are not curious as to details. 
They will not notice that a figure is armless, and 
as we know so well, their own first drawings often 
have two eyes or ears on the same side of a face. 
Yet they do seem to single out the eye as an ob- 
ject of peculiar interest. Did you ever have your 
two-year-old try to stick his forefinger in your 
eye ? Little children often attempt the same with 
a pictured eye. 

One who had not attended to the matter would 
say oft'hand, very likely, that children would pre- 
fer colored pictures to uncolored ones. Obser- 
Tation shows, however, that, generally speaking, 
children under two and a half or three show no 
decided preference either way. At first, the child 
is interested in pictures merely as objects; then 
later, in the observed similarity between pictures 
and objects — persons, animals, machines — which 
they represent, and not in the color. Color is 
subordinate in point to subject. Later they ex- 
hibited an interest in bright, crude colors. 

No Esthetic Taste Yet 

Michael Vincent 0'Shea§ found that the chil- 
dren, as a rule, cared nothing for the reproductions 
of classics. Colored pictures, even the crudest 
chromos, and "cunning" pictures — little children 
and animals playing — were always chosen, except 
■when Santa Claus or the Mother and Child were 
present. In many cases, when asked what pic- 
tures were in their schoolrooms, the children 
would be able to name only one or two out of a 
large number. The others, apparently, had made 
no impression upon them. They were over their 
heads figuratively as well as literally. If this is 
true of children generally, the problem of room- 
decoration is hardly as simple as many people 
think. 

We need not lower our standard of the 
esthetic, but simply change our subjects, accord- 
ing to the interests of the children. It is per- 
haps a bit disheartening to us adults, to whom pic- 
tures have opened a world of beauty, to realize 
that it is their usefulness and not their beauty 
that appears to children, up to at least six or 
seven years of age. They are to them simply 
something to play with. They like to have them 
little (as in the very cheap prints) so that they 
can handle them better. For any practical end 
they do not differ distinguishably from their dolls. 

§ .Author of "First Steps in Child Training," "Linguistic 
Development and Education," etc. 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



87 



What Pictures to Choose 

The educational lessons that we learn from 
these primitive tastes are plain. 

Since to a small child a picture is "the real 
thing" we should select his pictures, as we do his 
other toys, to be a part of his little world of ex- 
perience. They should represent the kind of 
people and pets that he should love, engaged in 
activities that he can understand. 

Little incidents, playful, cunning, jolly, and un- 



selfish, should be our choice, without reference to 
their esthetic purpose. 

While we need not strive to select great art, we 
may choose clear, strong color and simple, well- 
drawn action. 

Most of all, each picture should suggest a good 
story, and we should give the picture with the 
story. 

These four considerations have been strongly 
borne in mind in the selection of the illustrations 
for the volumes of the Boys and Girls Bookshelf. 



MUSIC FOR THE BABIES* 



BY 



MRS. HARRIET AYER SEYMOUR 



"No vmtter hoiv completely a zvoman has 'given up music,' she will some day find herself singing when 
she holds her baby in her amis. As she recites Mother Goose and the fairy and folk-tore tales, .ihe moves 
through the path of man's tipuvrd progress, led by a child, but with the life and understanding of adult years. 
As she tvalks with her child in the garden and in the fields, she is driven to a now interpretation of the world 
of nature." — Earl Barnes. 



Teach the children to listen to birds and to 
remember their calls. 

Sing "Come and be washed," instead of saying 
it. Here is a little tune spontaneously sung by a 
child of six: "Something ever, ever sings." The 
little child was right, but the trouble is most of 
us do not listen. 

Ask your question in song, Mother, and soon 
you will be answered by a cheerful singing re- 
ply. "Baby, where are you?" sung on a simple 
ascending scale wall soon bring a musical reply 
from a hidden child of "I am hiding here." 

Play softly, sing gently, and listen. 

During the day take some familiar tune and 
swing the rhythm with the arms. Let the chil- 
dren "step it," finding out where slow and quick 
steps come. Afterward, have them draw lines 
on the blackboard to show this duration, thus 

. Let them find in 

which direction the tune goes, up or down, and 
make pictures of it, either denoting the direction 
with a sweep of the hands or drawing a sweeping 
line on the blackboard. 

Singing, swinging, stepping, and making pitch 
and duration pictures, the children live in music 
as fish in water or birds in the air. 

If there are quarrels and tears, play something 
pretty and think the word liarmony. See how 
this calms the atmosphere. The mother I speak 

* This article should be read in connection with that portion of Mrs. Coleman's in which she tells just how she made 
a musical atmosphere for her little daughter (page 81). 



I KNOW a mother with four children who made up 
her mind that her home should be a very heaven. 
To her, music was God's special gift to mothers 
and children, and so she began singing regularly 
with each of her babies. 

There are many lovely songs which a mother 
can learn, and the best of all are the folk-songs 
of different countries. 

A gay song for baby as he eats his breakfast 
and a quiet one as he lies down to go to sleep — 
these will sink in deep and form a wonderful 
foundation for the music of his life. 

With the older babies have a regular singing 
time. Five o'clock is a good hour. The children 
of whom I speak had a "singing party" every day 
at five, and sometimes the neighbors came in and 
sang with them. Their mother grew to be such 
a strong influence in the community that many 
persons came to her for advice and refreshment. 

Nagging is often simply a lack of something 
better to do. A friend of this woman in speaking 
of her home life said, "She has substituted singing 
for nagging." 

Joy is the best tonic there is, and happiness 
creates health. The children's song-hour will af- 
fect the atmosphere of the whole house. 

Any mother who has had the regulation music 
lessons can play simple songs and can learn to 
guide her children into a singing life. 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



of controlled her children almost entirely through 
the power of constructive thougV. and music. 
They easily yielded to the word peace sung gently 
over and over. 

Mothers, if they only knew it, have the making 
of a new world of love, and music is a torch to 
light them on their way. 

To a mother who does not know any music, I 
say, if you can, get someone to come for an hour 



every day to sing with your children at twilight. 
See to it that the words of the songs are con- 
structive and beautiful and learn to sing a little 
yourself. Everyone can sing a little. 

Join the community chorus and if there isn't 
one, start one. 

"A singing army is a winning army." A sing- 
ing family is a spiritually growing family, and 
music the link that brintrs heaven to earth. 



TRADITIONAL FINGER-PLAYS AND 
IMITATIVE PLAYS* 



THE FINGERS 

This is little Tommy Thumb, 
Round and smooth as any plum. 
This is busy Peter-Pointer; 
Surely he's a double-jointer. 
This is mighty Toby-Tall; 
He's the biggest one of all. 
This is dainty Reuben Ring ; 
He's too fine for anything. 
And this little wee one, maybe, 
Is the pretty Finger-Baby. 

All the five we've counted now, 
Busy fingers in a row. 
Every finger knows the way. 
How to work and how to play; 
Yet together they work best. 
Each one helping all the rest. 

PUTTING THE FINGERS TO SLEEP 
By Harriet Hickok Hei.ler 

Go to sleep, my little Thunibkins, 

Go to sleep. 
Cuddle down, my Pointer Finger, 

Quiet keep. 
Come, my tallest Middle Finger, 

Where's the sun ? 
Slipping down behind the hill top — 

Day is done. 
Now, my timid Ring-man Finger, 

See the west ! 
Oh, you tiny Baby Finger, 

Rest is best ! 

BABY'S TOES 

This little pig went to market; 
This little pig stayed at home; 
This little pig had roast beef; 
This little pig had none; 
This little pig said, "Wee. wee ! 
I can't find my way home." 

* Other plays will be fuund in the Bovs and Girls Bookshelf, 



THE FIVE LITTLE FAIRIES 

By Maud Burn ham 

Said this little fairy, 

"I'm as thirsty as can be." 

Said this little fairy, 

"I'm hungry, too, dear me !" 

Said this little fairy, 

"Who'll tell us where to go?" 

Said this little fairy, 

"I'm sure that I don't know !" 

Said this little fairy, 

"Let's brew some Dew-drop Tea !" 
So they sipped it and ate honey 

Beneath the maple tree. 



'JOHNNY SHALL HAVE 
BONNET" 



A NEW 



Johnny shall have a new bonnet. 
And Johnny shall go to the fair, 

And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon 
To tie up his bonny brown hair. 

And why may not I love Johnny. 

And why may not Johnny love me ? 
And why may not I love Johnny 

As well as another body? 

And here's a leg for a stocking, 
And here's a foot for a shoe ; 

And he has a kiss for his daddy 
And one for his mammy, I trow. 

And why may not I love Johnny, 
And why may not Johnny love me? 

And why may not I love Johnny, 
As well as another body ? 

'ol. I., pages 1-22. 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



89 



TO LEARN ABOUT ONE'S FACE 



Ring the bell, 

Knock at the door, 
Lift the latch, 

And walk in. 



{Chuck the chin) 
\Pidl the front locks) 
(Knock on forehead) 
(Lift the nose) 
(Mouth opens.) 



Brow bender, 

Eye peeper, 

Nose smeller, 

Mouth eater, 

Chin chopper ! 

Chippety, chippety, chippety, chin ! 



Here sits the Lord Mayor (forehead). 

Here sit his two men (eyes). 
Here sits the cock (right cheek), 

Here sits the hen (left cheek). 
Here sit the little chickens (tip of nose), 

Here they run in (mouth) ; 
Chinchopper, chinchopper, 

Chinchopper, chin! (chuck the chin). 

BOW, WOW, WOW 

Bow-wow-wow ! 
Whose dog art thou ? 
Little Tom Tinker's dog, 
Bow-wow-wow ! 

WHAT THEY SAY 

"Bow-wow," says the dog; 

"Mew-mew," says the cat; 
"Grunt-grunt," goes the hog; 

And "Squeak," goes the rat. 
"Too-hoo," says the owl ; 

"Caw-caw," says the crow ; 
"Quack-quack," says the duck; 

And "Moo," says the cow. 



PAT A CAKE 

Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man. 
So I do, master, as fast as I can. 
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T, 
And then it will serve for Tommy and me. 

PEASE PORRIDGE 

Pease porridge hot. 

Pease porridge cold, 
Pease porridge in the pot. 

Nine days old. 

Some like it hot, 

Some like it cold. 
Some like it in the pot, 

Nine days old. 

FOR THE HURT HAND 

Pat it, kiss it. 

Stroke it, bless it; 

Three days' sunshine, three days' rain. 

Little hand all well again. 

FOR COLD HANDS 

Warm, hands, warm, daddy's gone to plow ; 
If you want to warm hands, warm hands now. 

THE BARNYARD 

When the farmer's day is done, 
In the barnyard, ev'ry one. 
Beast and bird, politely say, 
"Thank you for my food to-day." 

The cow says, "Moo !" 
The pigeon, "Cool" 
The sheep says, "Baa !" 
The lamb says, "Maa !" 
The hen, "Cluck ! Cluck !" 
"Quack !" says the duck. 



PREPARATIONS FOR HANDWORK* 



MRS. MINNETTA SAMMIS LEONARD 



While children differ greatly in their develop- The first period shows almost nothing that 

ment, they are enough alike to make it safe to could be called handwork, but it is a most impor- 

divide the first four years into two periods; the tant time of getting ready. Then the baby gets 

first two years, preparation, and the years from control of his body, learns to use the large mus- 

two to four, beginnings. cles, to focus his eyes, and to exercise his newly 

• This is the first of a series by Mrs. Leonard on Handwork. -Another article on "Beginnings in Handwork" will be 
found in the Course for next year. 



90 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



awakened senses. He must begin to know the 
world of things about him — how they look, how 
they act, and what he can do with them. 

Full and free opportunity to accomplish well 
the work of these first two years is essential, and 
the mother should begin early to watch and help. 
She should hang bright-colored objects for him to 
swing, handle, and throw. He needs objects con- 
trasting in size, shape, color, weight — things that 
move and things that stand still ; noisy, hard, soft, 
warm, cold, rough, smooth ; things round and 
things square. He needs toys to pound with, to 
pull and push, pour in and out of pans and spoons, 
and so on — anything to experiment with which 
can not hurt him. 

With the toys ought to be given real freedom 
to get all the "juice" from them. Mothers have 
an abnormal fear of a baby's getting a little hurt; 
and if we were perfectly honest with ourselves 
many of us would find, if our actions are the test 
of what we value, that we love the "cute, dainty 
baby-things" more than the baby itself. 

Sanitation May Go Too Far 

I used to pity a dear little girl we watched in 
the park, and my pity turned to indignation with 
her elders when I heard her, one day, humiliated 
and blamed for what was not her fault. Helen 
with her father stopped to admire a little twenty- 
months-old baby who ran, climbed, and rode 
her kiddie-car with rollicking glee. As they 
moved away I heard her father say, "For shame, 
Helen, that baby isn't nearly as old as you, and 
see how smart she is !" Poor Helen, not only 
robbed of her desires, but blamed for her result- 
ing backwardness ! For she took her daily airing 
securely strapped in a carriage, safe from "horrid 
germs, dirt, and falls," where she could watch 
the other youngster, dressed in a warm gray suit, 
getting all the health, joy, and exercise the parks 
could give. For though the parents of this other 
youngster too were not unaware of the danger 
from the dirt and germs of the city, they realized 
that, since this was the best playground they could 
give her, she had to get all the good it offered. 
These parents knew that development of strength 
and general body-control as well as self-confidence 
and judgment are the background of all later 
work. It was in this early freedom that she gained 
the caution and poise of body and mind conspic- 
uous in her actions and handwork to-day. 

With our own child not only did we give 
her a chance to experiment with things, but we 
encouraged her to get herself out of all difficulties 
and to do things herself, so that her earliest crow 
of delight was, "See, Baba do it self." And "do 
it self" became her name for the building-cans 



when she was about twenty-one months old. This 
pride in self-accomplishment is most essential in 
character-building. 

Companionship with Mother's Work 

Our baby, of course, liked to see me cook. She 
was never permitted to reach up to the table, 
but might always pull up a box or chair to stand 
on so that she could watch me. This not only 
prevented serious accidents, but brought develop- 
ment to her in handling big things and in plan- 
ning often how to make steps up to the top of a 
table or trunk. I had some convenient wooden 
boxes and a strong suitcase that she could always 
use. While watching and handling materials in 
the kitchen, she found cornmeal and flour lovely 
things to sift through the fingers and to pour. 
But as these couldn't be washed after her play 
and as I couldn't then get her sand, I substituted 
rice. Sitting on a clean sheet on the floor, she 
played a great deal with the rice, until in the 
Summer we went to the country where she could 
have a sand-box.* This turned out to be a real 
nurse-girl, for safe from danger, she played by 
the hour, pouring, sifting, and piling the sand. 
All I could get to hold the sand was a dry-goods 
box with high sides; but, after all, I found this 
box the best I could have had, because she dis- 
covered that, by fixing her chair outside and a 
small box inside, she could climb over into the 
sand. This gave her the great pleasure of 
climbing up and down, carrying masses of sand to 
put on her table for "dinner." The sand proved 
so valuable that I had a box installed on the 
porch when we returned to the city, and on rainy 
days even let her play with sand in the house, 
as she had formerly played with the rice. 

Blocks Are the First Handwork Tools 

Very early she enjoyed large blocks. I had to 
search through all the best toy-stores for even 
medium-sized, simple building-blocks, with no 
success other than a twenty-five cent set of A B C 



* A good size for the box is five by ten feet. First remove 
the sod from an area of those dimensions, and if the natural 
drainage is poor, replace the top layer of soil with gravel. 
Procure two boards fifteen feet long and eight inches wide, 
a few nails, and a joist, two by three inches and eight feet 
long. Saw the joist into pieces two feet long, sharpen the 
ends, and drive them into the ground sixteen inches at the 
points tliat are to be the corners of the box. From each 
board cut a piece five feet long for the ends of the box. 
Nail the boards to the corner posts so as to form the sides 
and ends and, if you wish, bevel the tops. 

The apparatus is complete when you have hauled in the 
load of sand, preferably of the grade known to dealers as 
"tine beach." Be sure it is free from earth. It should be 
changed at the first suggestion of foulness. To keep out 
stray cats and dogs, it is well to place a woven wire fence 
four feet high about the box. 

To make a sand table, construct one or more boxes, eight 
inches deep, of any desired size, preferably not over three 
by six feet. Build a strong table to support the boxes, about 
twelve inches above the ground. See note on page 60. 




PREPARATIONS FOR HANDWORK 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



91 



blocks and some cheap oblongs with ludicrous 
circus pictures. I used these, but also had a 
carpenter make a set of oblong blocks from the 
hardest sort of soft wood. I wanted them large, 
because not only did she use the large muscles to 
handle them, but had to exercise her whole body. 
Besides, she found uses for these in making things 
for herself which she never thought of with the 
small ones. However, in this earliest period she 
did little "making" with them. She loved to 
arrange in rows whatever she happened to be 
playing with — blocks, dolls, spoons, clothespins — 
and then cover them over "to take a nap." She 
spent much time and effort trying to wrap up odd- 
shaped things. Dominoes to put in and out of the 



bo.x, a cart and wheelbarrow to load with dirt 
and stones, a little broom, a doll-cradle and car- 
riage, a tub of water out of doors, and a pan, — 
these were her chief playthings the Summer 
she was two years old, and she learned to use all 
of them fairly well. 

Most of the play at this time is just to get new 
experiences. To the adult it often looks like a 
passion for destroying things. But gradually the 
baby finds that he can make things which he 
names, and be begins to value them enough to 
repeat the attempt another time. He is now ready 
to enter a new period, and the mother may do 
much to encourage him and help him to turn 
destructive energy into constructive channels. 



DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INFANT AND ADULT 

MEMORY* 



BY 



DAVID R. MAJOR, Pii.D. 



We may well consider the difference between the 
memory of the infant and that of the adult. 

First, we may speak of the lack of continuity, 
the so-called weakness of the infant's memory. 
When we speak of the adult's memory as being 
stronger and as having greater continuity than 
that of the infant, we mean that the mental im- 
pressions of the adult are retained for a longer 
period — for weeks, months, years, or to the end 
of his days; whereas, the baby remembers for 
only a moment or a few seconds. We say that 
the impressions on the infant's mind fade away 
almost the instant the stimulus ceases. The ex- 
l)lanation of the fleeting character of the infant's 
mental impressions is found in the fact that the 
associations which are formed are weak and un- 
substantial. The bonds of association are like 
ropes of sand: unless they are continually rebuilt 
they fall away. 

How early may we find associations which per- 
sist beyond the moment and which endure al- 
though they are not continually renewed? My 
own observations on this point, though far from 
being as thorough as one wishes, still will serve 
to indicate the directions in which one might look 
for answers in the case of an individual child. 
On R.'s 411th day (fourteenth month) he was 
playing with a ball, rolling it. crawling after it, 



and so on. After awhile the ball rolled under 
a couch out of easy reach and he went about 
other play. A half hour later, in order to see 
whether he would remember where he had last 
seen the ball, I said to him, "Get the ball, R." 
He at once crawled to the couch, got down on his 
stomach and struggled until he fished the ball 
out. This was the first time we noticed that he re- 
membered anything for more than a few seconds, 
though there must have been earlier instances 
not noted. Compayref quotes from Egger's:}: rec- 
ord a similar observation: "At that age (fifteen 
months) Emile seizes a toy that he has left or 
hidden under a chair; a quarter of an hour after- 
ward I asked him for it; he goes straight to the 
object and brings it to me." Two notes made in 
R.'s eighteenth month show that he remembered 
interesting plays for periods of twenty-four hours, 
or more. A note from the record for the nine- 
teenth month shows the child's ability to remem- 
ber places. The child's memory for names heard 
once was also increasing. On a certain evening 
in the latter part of the nineteenth month, I 
pointed out and named the moon for him. Three 
evenings after, he accidentally caught sight of 
the moon, reached toward it, and cried "moom." 
The name "moon" was remembered during the 
interval of three days. 



* From "First Steps in Mental Growth," by David R. Major, published by the Macmillan Company, New York. Used 

by permission of the publishers. 

t Tules Gabriel Compa-yre, author of "The Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child." 

j Emile Egger, a French scholar, author of "Observations et reflexions sur le developt'ement de I'intelligence €t du lan- 

gagc chez les e^fattts." 

K.X.— 8 



92 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



In the cases of remembering just cited we may 
suppose that the associations had not been re- 
newed since they were first formed; that the child 
had reached the age when impressions and asso- 
ciations persisted for several days, even when 
they were not renewed in the interval. It is per- 
haps unnecessary to follow the record farther 
month by month. It shows that an increasing 
number of experiences were selected and remem- 
bered for longer and longer periods. Of course, 
it is not to be supposed that the child remembered 
all things' — names, actions, where playthings were 
left, where people lived, persons he had seen, 
whether food was good, and so forth ; in fact, 
the things he did not remember far outnumbered 
those which he did, and his failure to remember 
some things and persons was as striking as was 
his ability to remember others. 

Another characteristic of a little child's mem- 
ories is that, as a rule, they are not accurately 
localized in time and space as are probably most 
adult memories. As Compayre observes, "The 
picture is engraved on his memory, but the set- 
ting has vanished. He remembers distinctly the 
things he has seen, but he can not tell where or 
when he saw them." It must be remembered 
that the ideas of time and space are not equally 
difficult of acquirement : space-relations are noted 
and remembered much earlier than time-relations. 
The idea of time is clearly harder; it requires 
a wider sweep of imagination, a higher process 
of analysis and discrimination to master the 
ideas of "now," "to-morrow," "yesterday," "long 
ago," "next summer," than to understand "far" 
and "near," "on" and "under." "in front," "be- 
hind," "inside," "outside," and the like. 

Another difference between the memories of 
the baby and those of the adult is that the former 
are sense-excited ; they arise in consciousness 
immediately and directly at the suggestion of a 
sense-stimulus, while most of the memories of the 
developed mind appear in connection with other 
memories, images revived by other images. 

It may be said generally that during the first 
year the child's memory-images are revived by 
some sort of sense-impression. At any rate, this 
was true of R.'s first year. His memory-images 
were called up by sensory stimuli ; the name of 
an object was heard and the image of the object 
appeared in consciousness; a doll in the hand 
suggested squeezing it to hear it squeak. 

(From the fifteenth month on, Dr. Major's inter- 
esting studies show that his child began to have ideas 
"pop into" his mind that did not seem to be suggested 
by anything he saw, heard, or felt at the moment.) 

Another notable difference between the baby's 
mind and the adult's, a difference very closely 



related to that just considered, is the absence in 
the former of what are called "trains of imagery." 
In the developed mind, most of the images which 
flow into consciousness are called there in the 
train of other images. An idea appears in con- 
sciousness, the first calls up a second, the second 
a third, the second and third may revive new 
ideas, and we have what we call a train of 
imagery, often uninterrupted by outside stimuli. 
For example, one glances up from his work and 
notes a spring shower which suggests returning 
leaves on the trees, blossoms, flowers, Easter-day, 
church, a certain minister, missionaries, a certain 
friend in South America. The train of ideas from 
the sight of the spring shower to the South 
American friend flows on independently of out- 
side influences — in the head, as we say. Trains 
of imagery are unknown, probably, to the child 
under two. He hears the word "ball," or "clock," 
or "hat," the idea of the object comes to his mind 
and there the process ends, unless the child hap- 
pens to want the object named; while in the 
mature mind any one of these words is likely to 
start of train of images. "Ball" may suggest the 
shape of the earth or a game of ball, and these 
in turn may call up any one of a number of other 
ideas; so with the words "clock" and "hat." The 
child's memory-images do not call up others for 
the reason that the "others" are not in the mind 
to be called up, and because the habit which ideas 
get of going in pairs or in series has not been 
formed. 

During the first year and a half — probably 
during the first two years — the baby lacks what 
in popular speech is known as the power of 
"voluntary recollection." He makes no conscious 
efforts to recall past experiences, such as the 
adult makes when trying to recall a name which 
for the moment is forgotten. In infancy and 
early childhood, recollections and recognitions of 
former experiences are accidental, apparently ; 
that is, they occur without conscious effort on 
the child's part. 

In considering this fact, the question arose, 
at what age do children begin to make an "eflfort 
to recall" past experiences? How early do they 
try to recall, for example, where they leave 
favorite toys, or names which are well known, 
but which for the moment are forgotten ? My 
observations were begun when the child was in 
his eighteenth month, and continued until there 
was unmistakable evidence that the child did 
make efforts to recall forgotten things — until 
"trying to remember" some forgotten thing came 
to be a frequent occurrence. The first observed 
instance of "effort to recall" appeared in the early 
davs of the twentv-eighth month. 



HABIT-TRAINING OF LITTLE CHILDREN 



BY 

MRS. EUNICE BARSTOW BUCK 



It is ensy to find in books and articles on child- 
training directions for remedying faults, but the 
problems we mothers of very little people face 
first are tif prevention, rather than of cure. If 
we could only know just how, it would be so 
much easier to influence a child to be generous 
than to try to correct one that had become selfish; 
for there is some virtue to cultivate in place of 
every fault. We want, then, to mold good chil- 
dren, not to remodel naughty ones ; and even this 
seems a challenge to far distant action as a new- 
born baby is laid in our arms. When we read 
that the first two and a half years are those 
essentially of habit-formation, we are given a 
starting-point, however, and matters of discipline 
assume an important place in the household at 
once. 

Perhaps there is no one thing that helps so 
much during the first few months of a baby's 
life as complete cooperation between father and 
mother, and a very definite idea on the part of 
both as to what habits the child is to form. 
Before Sister came, her father and I read, studied, 
and discussed everything on child-training we 
could find, and when the wee lady arrived a 
whole new set of theories awaited her — theories 
gleaned from 'many sources, sifted, assorted, and 
sprinkled with the best common sense we could 
achieve. While a few have been changed or 
modified with constant nursery use, in the main 
they have worked wonderfully well with our little 
people — Sister, who is now just past six, and four- 
and-a-half-year-old Brother. 

Sleep and Quietness 

Habits formed regarding physical care have 
far more influence on the development of will 
power and self-control than at first thought seems 
possible. Regularity is the keynote here — regu- 
lar hours for bathing and exercise, eating and 
sleeping. 

One of the earliest of nursery laws is that 
healthy babies shall go to sleep alone at the 
appointed hours, and Sister put us through a 
course of vigorous training before she would 
accept the idea. If we had not been assured by 
both doctor and nurse that the wails were far 
more painful to us than to her we never could 
have stood it ! They said that she was spunky 
and strong-willed — that she was not uncom- 
fortable was proved by the fact that she always 



stopped crying when picked up and was content 
as long as held — but I think the real explanation 
lay in the fact that she had a very tense, high- 
strung mother. We did not handle or fuss over 
her, and since baby-days she has been a very 
calm, happy child. Brother dropped asleep quite 
happily from the first — a delightful disappoint- 
ment after nerving ourselves for another siege. 

The results of this habit have been most pleas- 
ing. The children have never had to be "put 
to sleep," and as they expect to stay in their 
beds when once tucked in. our evenings have been 
free. If a tooth or a bit of pain does wake them 
during the night, when we have attended to the 
physical need of the moment we can slip back 
to our own beds at once. Brother has had two 
or three short illnesses, serious enough to make 
a trained nurse a necessity for a few days. He 
proved an unusually easy patient to take care of, 
for he did not expect entertainment when lying 
in his little bed. 

Occasionally each of the children has wanted 
the light in the hall left on and the door ajar. 
This has always been at a time of nervous unrest, 
and we found it best to do as they desired, with- 
out comment, for two or three nights ; then when 
we were sure that they were feeling quite well 
and happy again, we shut the door as a matter of 
course. Trouble was not likely to follow, but if 
it did and we were sure that conditions were 
normal, "baby"' had to cry it out (not a lengthy 
process if going to bed in the dark has been a 
life-habit), and the child, who was old enough 
to understand, was helped only by happy sug- 
gestions as to the friendly dark and perhaps an 
extra drink of water. If mother downstairs can 
play and sing during such small crises, it helps 
both little people and big. 

Keeping quiet until getting-up time is another 
habit that may be acquired by a very small child, 
and we have proved most conclusively that it is 
not necessary for the whole household to be roused 
at an unearthly hour just because there is a baby 
in the family. Both children when tiny were 
always put back in their beds after their early 
morning feeding, and soon learned that they must 
stay there until mother was dressed and had had 
her breakfast. Sister was inclined to be restless, 
and toys were a necessity at this time, but Brother 
found his pink hands quite amusing enough. Now 
when we wake in tlie morning we hear them 



93 



94 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL, 



singing and talking to themselves, each in his 
own room, and they get up and begin to dress 
when the seven o'clock whistles blow, whether we 
are about or not. 

The Habit of Happiness 

The habit of happiness must be cultivated all 
the time, and we found non-interference on our 
part one of the secrets of success. A short time 
ago I called on a friend who has a dear little 
girl three months old. The baby, who was lying 
contentedly on the living-room couch when I 
arrived, was picked up to be introduced to me. 
Her mother held her and played with her for a 
few minutes and then laid her down, only to 
pick her up again when another caller arrived. 
That time the wee lady objected to being put back 
on the couch, and soon her wails had increased 
until conversation was quite impossible. The 
mother apologized as we were leaving by saying, 
"Poor baby has so much wind in her stomach." 

A few days later I chanced to be at the home 
of another friend whose little one was a few 
weeks older. Nothing was in sight .to indicate 
that there was a baby in the house, and when I 
inquired for him his mother responded radiantly, 
"He is doing just splendidly and is so good. Would 
you like to peek at -him?" We went quietly up- 
stairs and "peeked." The boy, who was lying in 
his crib stretching his wee legs and arms about 
and grunting and gurgling in the happiest fashion, 
greeted us with a smile of welcome, then his 
attention returned to the waving hands, and after 
watching in silent delight for a few minutes we 
slipped away again. You see, a good child is 
sometimes far more a matter of mother-training 
than of child-training! 

The rule, "Avoid minor problems of discipline 
by never disturbing unnecessarily a contented 
child," should be posted in every nursery. When 
the wee baby lies in his bed kicking and crowing 
we must let him alone; when the little creeper 
is busy investigating corners we must let him 
alone; when the small toddler stands gazing out 
into the blackness of an early winter evening 
we must let him alone. The true way to enjoy 
4 little child is by watching with silent sympathy 
his natural development, and we find that the 
little one whose baby-thoughts are not interrupted 
will have a serene poise and a power of concen- 
tration which we grown-ups may well envy. 

Obedience 

Before one realizes it, the time for the forma- 
tion of the habit of obedience is at hand. We 
tried to make as few rules as possible and then 
insisted absolutely that those few should be kept. 



The very first in our family concerned Mother's 
glasses, and every time the little hands ventured 
near they were gently withdrawn with a quiet, 
"No, no," and attention called to something else. 
In a very short time the babies learned what that 
"No, no" meant in regard to Mother's glasses and 
later to other things, and it grew to be almost 
instinctive to withdraw the hand from any object 
at the words. When we were sure that there 
was no lack of understanding, wee fingers were 
snapped if the child did not heed. 

Slapping I dislike intensely — with a spirited 
child it altogether too often degenerates later into 
something like a free fight. By using the fingers 
as in the game of carroms, however, a quick, 
sharp sting results, which helps tiny memories 
in a remarkable way, and — it just can't be done 
in haste or anger. Of course, it is unpleasant to 
have to inflict pain of any sort or degree, but for 
the sake of the child's physical safety, as well 
as of his moral development, at times we must 
have instant obedience. Since we parents are 
not omnipresent, we must know that certain 
things will not be touched when we are not 
present, and a very little child must be reached 
through the senses rather than the intellect. 

If we are to be just to our children, two things 
must be remembered as to commands and re- 
quests. Commands must be few and really neces- 
sary ; and once given they must be carried out, 
no matter what the consequences. But unwilling- 
ness to accede to a mere request can not be called 
naughty. 

To be a successful commander requires real 
skill. We mothers often bewilder our children 
completely by the many and varied ways in which 
we word our orders. We cry, "No, no! Don't 
do that ! Put it down ! Drop it ! Haven't I told 
you not to touch that?" and then are puzzled 
and angry because Baby simply stands and stares. 
Men in the army know and obey only certain 
definitely worded commands. Surely we can not 
e.xpect more of children in the nursery. By think- 
ing things over carefully we mothers can make 
out a list for use with our children. This will 
begin with a simple "No, no!" — useful and 
necessary all through early childhood — meaning 
"The present action, no matter what it is, must 
be stopped at once." Perhaps the next will be 
"Come !" and then "Wait." Before the end of 
the third year these will be followed by the .more 
explicit. "Hands off" and "Put it back," "Come to 

Mother," "Run to ," "Stand still," "Come 

back," and a few military commands, "Halt," 
"Forward march," etc. These, being quite thrill- 
ing, will sometimes save the day when mutiny 
threatens. 




A CH.ALLENGE TO THE FUTURE 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



95 



With some children it is a very great help, in 
making obedience to these commands habitual and 
almost instinctive, to use them in a merry game. 
When Brother was in his happiest mood I 
would hold out my arms and call firmly but smil- 
ingly "Come," and when he had almost reached 
me hold up one hand and say "Wait," then again 
"Come quickly," and he would throw himself 
into my arms for a big bear hug. Then "Go 
back," "Turn around," "Come," etc. In such a 
mood he was sure to obey. Why should not 
drill be as useful to children as to soldiers? Then 
when it is no game, but deadly earnest — as when 
he starts to cross the street in front of an auto- 
mobile — his response to a quick, firm, "Wait" 
(to get attention), "Come back quickly" is almost 
automatic. 

Since it is habit we are striving for, with a 
very little person if is often best to force good- 
ness, rather than precipitate a crisis which is 
trying to both nerves and morals. For instance, 
if a baby hesitates and turns as though to run 
away when the order "Come" is given, if some 
one can take his hand and start him in the right 
direction, with a merry word to drive contrary 
thoughts out of the little mind, the atmosphere 
remains unclouded, and next time it will be easier 
to turn about-face at once. 

Things that Mustn't Be Touched 

We have spoken of rules. There are certain 
objects in every house which, for the safety and 
comfort of everybody, must not be handled by 
the very small child. The instinct to touch is 
very strong in normal children and should not 
entirely be repressed. They must learn much 
through their senses, and that of touch is as im- 
portant as any. A nursery, where everything 
within reach belongs to the children and may be 
handled by them, we have found to be almost 
essential. If this is impossible, a pen in which 
Baby can play with his own toys away from 
temptation helps greatly. 

Sister began to get about the floor when only 
eight or nine months old. We tried to keep deli- 
cate articles out of reach as much as possible 
when she played in the living-rooms, but the 
waste-basket was not removed, and she had to 
learn not to touch that. Later everything on 
the tables was forbidden. Since this was an un- 
varying rule, its enforcement was not difficult, 
and Brother learned by example as well as by 
precept. Because we had no little meddlers about, 
much needless friction was avoided at home, and 
Brother and Sister have always been welcome 
guests at the homes of our friends. 



Unfortunate Habits 

There is one bad habit which many of us have 
to deal with — thumb-sucking. Sister had a slight 
case, but when she was fourteen months old we 
stopped it entirely by a thorough "course" of 
mittens. If she had been like a wee neighbor of 
ours, sucking day and night, we would have 
applied the treatment when she was a tiny baby, 
but she never used the comfort much until teeth 
began to bother, and then only when tired and 
unhappy. The habit grew slowly but surely, how- 
ever, and finally I made thumbless mittens of thin 
cotton cloth and kept them on her hands night 
and day for two weeks, and during that time she 
was not once allowed to get the little thumb to her 
mouth. The first two or three nights I stayed with 
her until she was asleep, and we tried to keep 
her happily occupied during all her waking hours. 
At the end of two weeks the mittens were re- 
moved during the day and her hands given a 
snap that really stung if they went to her mouth. 
This only happened a few times — the habit was 
broken. She wore mittens at night until she 
was three j-ears old. 

The secret of success with a method like this 
is to prevent a single lapse, and of course a joke 
should never be made of the matter. It is wiser 
to prevent a child's forming this habit at all than 
to break it at any period. Thumbless aluminum 
mitts may be bought for tiny babies, which they 
really enjoy watching wave about, and these can 
be used for a short time if symptoms appear. 
As they can be so easily kept clean they are per- 
haps more sanitary than cloth mittens. They 
would be a real hardship to an older child. I 
tliink, for toys could not be handled as is possible 
with the soft cloth, but they could be used at 
night. 

It is hard to keep mittens of any kind on a 
child of over a year and a half. If the habit 
has not been overcome by this time, surgeon's 
plaster wrapped about the offending member and 
soaked with something harmless but bitter may 
be helpful. At this age rewards may be used 
and soon pride may be appealed to. One child 
of my acquaintance stopped when told that it 
would make her mouth very ugly, and another 
was impressed only when her playmates mimicked 
her. It did look silly and babyish. 

Common Sense 

As the children begin really to think things 
out we can find more and more ways to make 
unpleasantness follow naturally in the wake of 
wrongdoing. The child w-ho is careless with 
books or in the use of pencil, scissors, or anything 



96 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



else is e\idently too young to use them. We 
never have time to fuss with a child who hinders 
when being helped to dress, and, if he interferes 
in any way or is naughty, he must wait until 
our next task is completed, and we are again 
free to help him. Of course the smaller the per- 
son the less severe must be the penalties. Sister 
and Brother play generally together most hap- 
pily, but when the rare times of wrath do come, 
a temporary separation works like magic. Of 
course, if children can not play happily together 
they must play alone — it's just common sense. 

It is in little ways such as these that we can 
teach our boys and girls to look before they leap — 
or rather to think before they act — surely one of 
the most desirable habits that can be formed in 
childhood. 

Happy Companionship 

Where two children are "near of an age" there 
is always a more or less trying period when the 
younger first gets about. He can not yet handle 
all toys correctly and is pretty sure to interfere 
with their use by the older one. Mother-instinct 
began to grow in Sister's womanly little heart 
when she was only a baby herself, and she was 
always very patient and never seemed to resent 
Brother's interference, even when treasured pos- 
sessions were damaged. If she built a beautiful 
house and he knocked part of it down she'd smile 
■ — and sigh — perhaps finish the destruction her- 
self and try another game. She adapted her 
ideas to his understanding in quite a remarkable 
way, and before he was two years old they were 
the happiest of chums. Things would not have 
gone quite so smoothly had he been the elder, for 
he had far less patience and self-control, and 
was a willful wee lad always. 

Helpful Play 

If a normal child is unduly mischievous, one 
of two things is the matter. He has no proper 
place to play where he can handle and experi- 
ment with interesting things — and this is abso- 
lutely necessary if he is to develop as he should — 
or he is suffering from lack of directed play. 
Mother forgets that if she has to say "Don't do 
that" she must always add "Do this." Indeed, 
if she can keep him supplied with "Do's" there 
will be no need of "Don'ts." 

Directed play is the solution of many a nursery 
problem. If we can keep a baby busy he is sure 
to be happy and good. We can find many things 
for tiny people to do and be, and with just a word 
here and there, it is easy to keep little imagi- 
nations working. Nursery dramatics are easily 
supervised, and Mother can go right on sewing 



while Jack jumps over the candle-stick or he and 
his sister Jill climb the fateful hill. Toys are 
much more interesting if Mother is near, and so 
many "really truly" grown-up things are delight- 
ful playthings. 

Before we know it we have real helpers who 
are happiest when running errands about the 
house, pushing the carpet-sweeper, wiping spots 
off the bath-room wall, beating eggs and stirring 
flour on baking-day, or polishing silver. All 
these things and many more can be done by the 
two-year-old. We've always been able just to 
see virtue grow behind the glowing faces when 
it has been possible to say to Daddy at the dinner- 
table, "We had such dear little helpers this morn- 
ing," and can add a list of accomplishments per- 
haps; "They tidied the nursery, washed their 
own socks (how children do love water!) and 
Sister wiped down the stairs while Brother dusted 
the chairs." 

Self-Control 

Temper-tantrums were among the things we 
decided not to have in our family. When Sister 
was almost sixteen months old she had a terrible 
one, for which I was entirely to blame. She had 
been playing quietly beside me for a long, long 
time, and when she finally became restless I should 
have suggested a new game or given her another 
toy. I was too "busy," however, and paid no at- 
tention to her when she began to wander aimlessly 
about the room. Soon she stumbled over a rug and 
fell. Without raising my eyes I said, "Up she 
comes," and she regained her feet and continued 
her journeying. A minute later she stepped on a 
bead and went down again, and I answered her 
wail by saying absently, "Oh, that didn't hurt. 
Hop up." 

Then the last straw came; she started for my 
lap for comfort and fell over my extended foot, 
and — her self-control was gone. She tlung her- 
self upon her face and screamed and kicked, and 
kicked and screamed, until I was really frightened 
and she was completely exhausted. 

For days after that, when things annoyed her, 
Sister's little hands and feet began to fly, and it 
was only by the greatest care on our part that 
a repetition of the experience was avoided. Since 
then we have tried never to be too busy to suggest 
a task for little fingers or really to sympathize 
with childish troubles. We have never allowed 
anyone to tease Sister — 'that would have been 
fatal — and we never laugh at her. Too many 
times I have seen people make a joke of the be- 
ginnings of temper, and before they realized it 
the tantrum-habit had been formed, and it is an 
extremely difficult one to break. [ 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



97 



Brother, who is entirely different in disposition, 
has many a time flown into a baby rage, over in 
a few minutes, but acute while it lasted. We 
ignore it entirely, or, if it is directed against a 
person or thing, hold his hands quietly but firmly 
until it is past. These have never been frequent 
and have now ceased almost entirely. When 
nobody laughs and nobody cries and it seems to 
cause no excitement at all, it doesn't pay to relieve 
his feelings in such a strenuous fashion. 

Prevention is far better than cure, and with 
tact and patience and forethought on the part 
of us parents, occasions for outbursts of any kind 
are few and far between. When we know that 
the children are tired we try to make very few 
demands upon them and to be perhaps a bit blind 
to faults that might otherwise need correction. 
We mean always to give a few minutes' warning 
before time to put away a toy or game, and never 
to interrupt a busy child unless absolutely neces- 
sary. 

Unselfishness 

We read that a child is natural!}- a selfish little 
animal, but we have not found that to be true. 
From babyhood our two have been generous, and 
jealousy has always been an unknown iniquity. 
When Brother first began to talk, if we asked 
him if he wanted a walk or a toy or dinner he 
would always nod and say, "Teti (Sister) too," 
and at the prospect of any pleasure Sister would 
ask, "And can Brother do it?" If one was left 
out there was never any grieving, however. 
Sometimes when one baby received a caress the 
other would run up saying, "Love me, too !" and 
then we would have a big three-cornered bear- 
hug. No doubt this spirit is in some small part 
due to our happy home atmosphere ; but I am 
sure the roots must always be there, ready for 
cultivation. 

We have had no trouble about playthings. Toys 
for which personal affection is felt, such as dolls 
and animals, have been owned by the individual 
child, and each has a place of his own in which 
to keep things dear to him. Of course, we try 
to see that the families are of about the same 
size. Building material and things of that sort 
we find best owned by the children together ; for 
common ownership must foster a feeling of 
community interest and responsibility which is 
wholesome, wliile at the same time encouraging 
cooperative work and play. 

Manners 

Before the children were three years old they 
could feed themselves very nicely and were begin- 
ning to wash and dress themselves. They under- 



stood that hands and faces must be clean before 
meals, asked for and used a handkerchief, and 
were gradually learning to act on the principle, 
"A proper place for everything and everything in 
its place." (We're still learning, but patience and 
perseverance are going to win out in the end.) 
Such little habits as self-reliance and orderliness 
we hope will appear instinctive later, when the 
children realize their value, for their minds will 
be more free for efficient thinking if the details 
of right doing have been prearranged auto- 
matically. 

"Please" is quite naturally and properly one of 
the first spoken words, and when once learned 
it should accompany all requests. Sometimes it 
was — and is still — necessary to prompt our little 
people, but we find courtesy very catching, and 
as we are particular ourselves we have had sur- 
prisingly little difficulty. "Thank you" and 
"Excuse me," the latter preceded by "I'm sorry," 
and other courtesies came easily and naturally. 

If our sons and daughters are to rise when an 
older person enters the room, give the most com- 
fortable chair to another, return wandering 
property, and so forth, we must do these things 
ourselves. It is sometimes a bit hard to remem- 
ber to ask pardon when we inadvertently inter- 
fere with the activities of a tiny child and to 
apologize for a cough or sneeze when no one 
except the baby is near. It is by example rather 
than precept that such things must be taught, 
however, and we parents can not be too careful 
in the presence of the younger generation. 

We want our children to be polite to our 
friends, though this is sometimes a bit hard to 
manage. Brother never found it difficult to say, 
"How do!" quite cordially, but Sister has always 
been very shy and it often seems a real ordeal 
for her to speak to strangers. At such times we 
have not tried to insist on words, but have had 
her shake hands, if necessary giving invisible 
assistance to the halting right arm. We found, 
however, that if we knew guests were coming we 
could plan in a way that made events happy for 
all. If she was told that a certain friend of 
Mother's was coming and would want to see a 
block-house or a freshly dressed doll, she would 
forget herself in her busy preparation and later 
in the thought that she was really giving pleasure. 

Fortitude 

Of course, we have always encouraged the 
children to be brave in the face of failure, dis- 
appointment, or physical pain. They learned, "If 
at first you don't succeed, try and try again," as 
soon as they could talk, and "The world is so full 
of a number of things, I am sure we should all 



98 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



be as happy as kings." even if plans have to be 
changed and pleasures postponed or rearranged. 
Of course there is always something just as nice 
to do if we can only find it. 

Slight bumps are kissed and forgotten, while 
with bigger ones, unless they are serious, diver- 
sion proves better than witch-hazel. Perhaps 
with a very tiny child we look to see if there 
is a hole in the floor before we look to see if there 
is broken skin, and you know there is always 
something funny about a tumble. Once a quick, 



"There goes Hunipty Dumpty," brought a laugh 
instead of tears, when a very small Brother fell 
from the steps onto the crushed-rock drive, and 
nonsense about the absence of the king's horses 
and men and what they would have thought had 
they been there, kept the little mind occupied 
during a rather painful cleansing and bandaging 
operation. 

Self-control in matters large and sincere means 
a disciplined will and a morally sturdy child — and 
surely that is what we all want. 



"BABY-TALK" AND SPEECH DEFECTS 



BY 

M. V. O'Shea 



"There is something very cheerful and courageous in the setting-out of a child on a journey of speech 
zvilh so small baggage and with so much confidence. He goes free, a simple adventurer." — Alice Meynell. 



The first sound a child utters may be indicated 
by the vowel a. In the beginning he can not utter 
any consonant sound: one can hear nothing but 
vowel sounds from him for several months. 
Why? Because the vowels are easily uttered. 
They require no coordination of the lips, teeth, 
tongue, and palate. 

The first articulate word is something like 
via-ina. The next is apt to be pa-pa and the next 
ha-ha. The consonants in these words are made 
in a simple way. The child is always uttering 
the a sound during his waking moments, and when 
he is feeding or indulging in voice play he un- 
consciously modifies the stream of a sound by the 
lips, which results in the ma-ma that infants re- 
peat over and over again in voice play. Then 
again as the child is playing vocally in his cradle 
he puff's and puffs and produces something like 
pa-pa by modifying the stream of a sound, by 
blowing against the opening lips. In the same 
way while he is indulging in vocal gymnastics he 
produces a sound that resembles ha-ha. In due 
course other consonants appear and they are 
joined with the original a sound; and in time 
other vowels are developed ; thus the range of 
sound combinations is continually enlarged. 

By the time any normal child is twelve months 
of age, he begins to imitate some of the words 
spoken by his father, mother, brothers, and sis- 
ters, but he never reproduces any word with 
complete accuracy. He mutilates every word 
more or less, because he avoids the more difl^cult 
sounds, either eliminating them altogether or sub- 
stituting other sounds for them. Very rarely. 



if ever, would a twelve-months-old child say 
"milk," giving the full and exact sound of the 
/ and the k. Sometimes young children will omit 
all the consonant sounds, and "milk" will be sim- 
ply '"t." More often it is "mi" with the I and k 
omitted. 

Cause of Speech Defects 

A six-months-old child can not control the tips 
of his fingers in coordination with one another so 
that he can perform delicate tasks such as thread- 
ing a needle. Neither can he control the tip of 
his tongue in relation to the teeth and the palate 
so that he can produce difficult consonantal 
sounds. This is why he mutilates words. Most 
children of eighteen months and even older will 
omit the sound of g on the ends of all words 
ending in ing. They will substitute other sounds 
for th. fl. sp, and so on, or omit them altogether. 
Thus "that" will be "dat" ; "spot" will be "pot"; 
"flowers" will be "fowers"; "run" may be "glun" 
or simply "un" ; "drink" may be "ding" or "dink"; 
"Christmas" is likely to be "ismas" or "Kismas"; 
"hold" may be "ho"; "let" may be "'et"; "come" 
may be simply "cu" ; "through" is likely to be 
"f rough." The "th" in "either" will probably be 
changed to "v," and the word will be pronounced 
"eiver." A hard word like "scissors" will be 
likely to be simply "si." One might go on with 
these instances to any length. 

By the time the child has reached his third 
birthday all these mutilations should have dis- 
appeared, if he develops normally. If he still 
retains his "baby talk" it is an indication that he 
is not gaining mastery of speech in quite the 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



99 



right way, and he should be given some special 
attention. The first thing to do is to avoid using 
"baby talk" in speaking to him. A parent should 
always prevent people from using mutilated 
words in talking to his child. The next thing to 
do is to look into the child's physical condition. 
Does he have adenoids? Is he tongue-tied? 
Does he have enlarged tonsils or enlarged glands? 
Is his palate properly formed? Are the nasal 
passages open, or are they obstructed by con- 
gested conditions or misplaced bony structures? 
In some cases the tongue is so thick that the child 
seems to be unable to use it to make the more 
difficult consonant sounds. 

The chances are that a child who is normal 
physically will grow through the period of speech- 
mutilation, and will reproduce correctly all the 
sounds in the language without special instruction. 
But occasionally a child is found who is normal 
physically and mentally, but who persists in using 
mutilated words. With such children special in- 
struction is desirable. These children must be 
taught how to place the vocal apparatus in making 
the sounds which give trouble. Take the th 
sound, for instance. A parent can help a normal 
three-year-old child by showing it how the vocal 
organs are placed in sounding th in "through." 
for example, or in "this" or "that." A one-year- 
old child can not imitate the position of the vocal 
apparatus in making particular sounds, but a typi- 
cal three-year-old child can do it. 

Precise Articulation 

The sounds that are made in the front of the 
mouth, so to speak, so that the child can see the 
position of the tongue, teeth, and lips, can be more 
easily imitated than sounds that are made in the 
back of the mouth; but even these latter sounds, 
as, for instance, g in "pudding," can be taught 
to a normal three-year-old child who habitually 
omits it, but can not be effectively taught simply 
by pronouncing it. The child must see the vocal 
organs in position and in action. If necessary, 
he must feel them with his fingers so that he will 
have something definite to imitate. A child can 
not imitate the mere sound of a word as readily 
as the movement of the vocal apparatus which 
he can see and feel. 



This principle is recognized to-day in teaching 
adults a foreign language. Every good teacher 
now gives phonic lessons at the beginning of the 
study of a foreign language. The student ac- 
quires the sounds of the language largely by 
observing the placement and imitating the move- 
ments of the vocal organs of his teacher. He 
may never get the more subtle sounds of the 
foreign language, as ich in German, if the teacher 
simply pronounces them and depends upon his 
pupil to imitate them through hearing alone. 

If the readers of these lines, who have not 
thought of these matters, will try themselves to 
imitate the speech of a foreigner whose language 
they do not speak, they will quickly realize that 
it is practically impossible to reproduce strange 
words that are heard merely. In the language of 
psychology, one can not get a clear auditory image 
of words with which he is unfamiliar. Not 
until he has had experience in speaking such 
words will the ear give clear auditory images of 
them. 

It is good training for all children between the 
ages of three and six or seven to have exercises 
in precise articulation. However, the majority of 
children will in time articulate correctly without 
special training, provided they hear language 
spoken correctly about them. But if they hear 
slovenly speech they may never learn to articulate 
precisely, which will prove a serious handicap in 
life. Clear, precise articulation will prove a valu- 
able asset to anyone. 

A particular cause of speech-defect remains to 
be mentioned. Observations have been made 
upon left-handed children who have been urged 
to use their right hand during the first two or 
three years, and they develop slowly in the 
mastery of speech ; but when permitted to use 
the left hand freely, they have progressed more 
rapidly. There have not been enough investiga- 
tions made to enable one to say that this is the 
rule, but it is undoubtedly true in a large propor- 
tion of cases. If, then, a parent has a left-handed 
child whom he is trying to make right-handed, 
and if the child is arrested in his speech develop- 
ment, it would seem wise to let the child follow 
nature's course and use his left hand if he chooses 
to do so. 



THE GIFT OF TONGUES 



BY 

MARY ADAIR 



It may seem unnecessary, in these days of in- 
tensive education, to stress tlie baby's babblings 
as of extreme importance to the race, or to give 
a word of warning to the eager world that "Art 
is long," and that it is the littlest child, who says 
nothing about it, who is the first victim of the 
high cost of superior education. 

The modern scientific mother feeds carefully 
her baby's body, then weighs and measures for re- 
sults; but strangely enough she attempts to weigh 
and measure his intellectual and spiritual gain, or 
in other words his human growth, without re- 
membering that the feeding must antedate the 
testing. 

The race-mother, perhaps because she was such 
a child herself, babbled her sing-song to the baby, 
and took, in Nature's own way, the path to soul- 
culture. The modern mother slights the original 
plan, apparently supposing that 'her child will be 
a new biological path-breaker and leap lightly 
through time, landing safely upon the First-Grade 
Reader and Hans Christian Andersen. So it hap- 
pens that we have a generation of young people 
who know not Joseph or Daniel, who might 
scoff at the "handwriting upon the wall," who 
sit in smothering swarms to see others play or 
sing, but have little art of play or song for them- 
selves. 

Sir J. A. Thompson, who is credited with the 
latest word in biology, says: "For various rea- 
sons biologists take a strange interest in the play of 
animals, and of children. . . . Play is no mere 
safety-valve for overflowing animal spirits, it is 
a rehearsal without responsibilities of some es- 
sential activities of adult life — but it is more, 
it affords both scope and stimulus for variation. 
The playing organisms are the most educable." 

For the first education of the baby through 
stories, three types are useful. These are The 
Croon, Body-Stories, and Egoistic Stories. For 
the beginnings of story and of story-telling, one 
had need to rub a lamp or question the Sphinx. 
So elemental is the first story that it seems only 
a voice, a deep calling unto deep ; as people who 
pass give the sign, and the countersign is given 
in return, so mother and child call to and answer 
each other. 

Brooding motherhood sings The Croon as 



the earliest story, the embryo of literature so to 
speak. It is the unutterable made vocal, the age- 
long story of love that slumbers not nor sleeps. 
To be sure, it happens that in the present over- 
sophisticated moment mothers do not croon to 
their babies, but happily the lapse is only for a 
moment; presently Nature will bestir herself and 
some dear old "bye bye" will come to life again. 
Mother Goose is a wise old bird ; she will know 
what's what, and when's when, for no doubt 
Nature senses the psychological moment better 
than we think. 

The Croon 

The croon of my babyhood was a weird one 
enough : 

"Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye — 
The Black Douglas will iiae get ye," 

but still across the span of time I hear it now as 
saying only, "My darling, my darling, you are a 
precious jewel in a golden casket within a fortified 
castle surrounded by a moat across which no evil 
may pass. So sleep, my little one." 

Wherever she learned it, the Southern Mammy 
is the star performer in this first "story hour." 
An ancient croon is illustrated in one of the pres- 
ent popular songs, "The .A.labama Lullaby"' : 

"Little Pickaninny, close yo' eyes an' go to sleep, 
Moon am swingin' low and spooky shadows gin to 
creep." 

Miss Emma Delancy, also Miss Lucine Finch, 
have, each in her own way. made the Southern 
croon famous. 

Body-Stories 

After the croon — what? The baby would say, 
"Oh, some story with movement and human touch, 
as well as sing-song." Therefore, Body-.Stories 
seem to be the logical form. These are played 
as they are rhymed, and may be grouped into 
whole-body plays, riding-plays, knee-plays, foot- 
plays, face-plays, ear-plays, nose-plays, hand-and- 
finger plays. 

"The first of the whole-body plays is the bur- 
rowing game, in which a gentle hand or maybe 



100 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



loi 



a head fumbles about in the pit of baby's stomach 
and a growly voice says "Boo-oo," or 

"See the little mousie creeping up the stair, 
Looking for a warm nest — there, oh, there !" 

In this game the climax occurs with the fum- 
bling in the hollow of baby's neck. These stories 
always demand an encore. 

Riding-Games 

The thrill enters at this stage. Well-known 
games are: "Ride a Cock-Horse," etc., from 
Mother Goose. 

"The baby goes riding away and away. 
Goes riding to hear what the dog has to say," etc. 
— From "Father and Baby Plays" — Emilic PouUson. 

"All the pretty little horses. 

Black and brown and gray and white and bay, 
All the pretty little horses 
You shall see some day, some day," 



"Gallop and gallop and gallop away. 
See how my baby can gallop to-day." 



Knee-Games 

"What do I see? Baby's knee — • 
Tickily, tickily, tic, tac, tee ; 
One for a penny, two for a pound, 
Tickily, tickily, round and round." 

"One, two, three, away goes she, 
Sliding down father's knee." 



Foot-Plays 

"Up, down — up, down. 
One foot up and one foot down. 
All the way to London town, 

Tra la la la la la." — Mother Goose. 

"Shoe the old horse and shoe the old mare, 
But let the little colt go bare. Rap-a-tap." 

— Mother Goose. 

"Blacksmith. Blacksmith, fellow fine. 
Can ye shoe this horse o' mine?" etc. 

— Mother Goose. 

"Pitty, Patty, Polt, 
Shoe the wild colt. 
Here a nail, there a nail — 
Pitty, Patty, Polt."— Mo//u'r Goose. 

"Kick about, kick about, farmer's man. 
Thresh the corn as fast as you can : 
Kick it and stick it and pick it with glee. 
And put in the barn for Tommy and me." 

— .-Idapted from "Pat a Cake." 



Ear-Game 

"What's here? 
Baby's ear. 
Click-clack. 
Put it back." 

Nose-Game 

"What's here? Baby's nose. 
Click, clack, on it goes." 
{Making believe to take off and hastily to put 
it on again.) 

Hand-and-Finger Stories 

These are so numerous, it is only necessary to 
suggest the types. Other contributors have dis- 
cussed these. 

"Pat a cake, Pat a cake," etc. 

— Mother Goose. 

"This little pig went to market." 

— Mother Goose. 

"Thumbkin, Pointer, Middleman big, 
Sillyman, Weeman, rig-a-jig-jig," 

"This is mother, this is father, this is brother tall. 
This is sister, gay and happy, this the baby small." 

"Here's my Father's knives and forks, 
Here's my Mother's table. 
Here's my Sister's looking-glass, 
And here's the baby's cradle." 

"Here is the church and here is the steeple, 
Open the door and see all the people." 

"Thicken man build the barn. 
Thinner man spool the yarn, 
Longen man stir the brew, 
Gowden man make a shoe, 
Littlen man all for you." 

— Old Norse Game. 

Face-Plays 

{Indicating the parts by a light touch) 

1. "Knock at the door, peep in. 

Lift up the latch and walk in." 

2. "Here sits the Lord Mayor," etc. 

• — Mother Goose. 

3. "Forehead, eyes, nose, mouth. 

Dearest baby. North or South.' 

— Emilic Poulsson. 

These may be continued indefinitely as to 
sources, developing later into cat's-cradle play and 
object-stories. 

Egoistic Stories * 

There is a third group of baby stories of great 
educational importance. These are usually in 

• The mother, in the article on "The Second Year with 
Tom and Sarah," makes even more clear the value of these 
"egoistic'* stories. 



THE HOMI-: KIXDliRGARTEN MANUAL 



prose-form and frequently incidental, the chief 
educational value being the emphasis upon a 
child's interest in himself, his name, his posses- 
sions, his comings and goings, etc. 

A few formal illustrations from this popular 
group might include : 



Making Calls 

"Click-clack, click-clack, 
Off we go on horse's back. 
Ride and ride a mile or more 
Till we come to Grandma's door. 
Whoa ! now, Dobbin dear. 
Grandma, see who's here." 

— Einitic Pouiss 



In "Child-Stories and Rhymes" Miss Poulsson 
has stories of baby's spoon, baby's pillow, and 
other endless possessions. 

An adaptation from Tagore's "Crescent Moon" 
gives charming illustrations of egoistic tales. 
One represents the child talking — he says: 
"Mother, you are riding in your palanquin and 
I am riding beside you on my red horse (his 
toy-horse). You will not be afraid, Mother; I 
will take care of you," etc. 

These tales represent the germinal form of the 
biographical-autobiographical and personal-his- 
tory-tales of great persons in great literature; 
hence their importance and the responsibility of 
mothers to understand the significance of begin- 
nings. 



THE USE OF MOTHER GOOSE* 

BY 

THE EDITORS 



"No, no, my melodies will never die. 
While nurses sing or babies cry." 



Mother Goose was the first musical comedy. 

When you ask yourself why children in all 
ages and many lands have enjoyed these infantile 
rhymes, there seems to be no better reason than 
that given by Joseph Lee ;t "We like it because 
we are tuned to like it." 

But who is Mother Goose? Since the higher 
criticism has destroyed the legend of an English 
Mrs. Vergoose or a French Mere L'Oye or even 
a real Mother Goose who used to sing these 
rhymes to her grandchildren, we have to acknowl- 
edge that this nursery classic does not trace its 
origin to any individual author. 

What, then, is Mother Goose? A Mother 
Goose rhyme is a short verse with a rhythmical 
beat that almost, or quite, makes sense. The 
verses of William Blake do not belong to the 
Mother Goose category, because they are too 
sophisticated; neither do those of Robert Louis 
Stevenson, because they are too beautiful. 

They Satisfy the Instinct of Rhythm 

The strength of Mother Goose is that her 
rhymes are rhythmical. The baby's ga-a, ga-a is 
rhythmical and so is even his kicking. The sound 
is more important than the sense. Such rhymes 
as "Heigh diddle, diddle," "See-saw, Margery- 
Daw," and "Ding-dong bell," so Joseph Lee says, 

' This article is an introduction to the Mother Goose songs 
SHELF. t Author of "Play in Education." 



"give the children the freedom of the world of 
rhythm, teach him the first paces of the mind, 
the varying gaits of thought and action — to 
understand, with Touchstone, who time ambles 
withal, who time trots withal, and who he gallops 
withal, and how it feels to have hiin do it." 

These rhythms are accompanied by action. 
"Pat a cake" combines rhythm — the rhythm of 
sound — and the action of patting together the 
baby hands: "Swing, swong. the days are long" 
is a melody to which little children are tossed up 
and down upon the parental knee. Through 
action-plays the child enjoys the imaginary ad- 
venture of being chased, of traveling, or of fall- 
ing. He feels as deeply as is possible all that 
these little melodramas enact. 

Rhythms Run Into Action 

There is almost no limit to the dramatic possi- 
bilities of Mother Goose: 

"Pitty, Patty, Polt, 
Shoe the wild colt. 
Here a nail, and there a nail — 
Pitty Patty Polt. 

is used while the baby is being dressed. 

"One, two, 
Buckle my shoe," 

and stories in the first volume of the Boys and Girls Book- 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



103 



for the same occasion, is also serviceable to 
count by. "Here we go 'roimd the mulberry 
bush," is excellent for running, 

"Dance to your daddy, 
My little babby," 

is the earliest known encouragement to solo-danc- 
ing. "Pease Porridge Hot" and "Dance, Thumb- 
kin, Dance," are excellent finger-plays. 

"A farmer went trotting upon his gray mare, 
Bumpety, bumpety, bump," 

is an enticing combination of actioii and humor, 
while "Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John," 
is an excellent soporific. 

These action-plays pass insensibly into count- 
ing-out rhymes. * 

Probably the most famous and delightful of 
all counting-out rhymes is the one that dainty 
little maiden. Marjorie Fleming, taught to Sir 
Walter Scott before his open fire: 

"Wonery. twoery, tickery. seven; 
Alibi, crackaby. ten and eleven ; 
Pin, pan, Musky-Dan ; — " 

"He used to say," Dr. John Brown tells us, 
"that when he came to 'Alibi Crackaby,' he broke 
down, and "Pin, pan. Musky-Dan, Tweedle-um, 
Twoddle-um, made him roar with laughter. He 
said Musky-Dan especially was beyond endurance, 
bringing up an Irishman and his hat fresh from 
the Spice Islands and odoriferous Ind." 

Rhymes that Please the Senses 

Little children are very fond of stories that in- 
volve sense-impressions. They like tales about 
houses built of ginger-bread and rivers that run 
with milk. Mother Goose has such a lyric that 
appeals to the sense of taste — it is about Queen 
Pippin's hotel : 

"The walls were of sugar, as white as the snow, 
.\nd jujube windows were placed in a row; 
The columns were candy, and all very tall. 
And a roof of choice cakes was spread over all." 

Similarly the children enjoy rhymes that appeal 
to the sense of sound, particularly those that are 
imitative of the familiar animals, such as "Bow, 
wow, wow," and 

"The girl in the lane that can't speak plain, 
Cried. Gobble, gobble, gobble." 



* See the counting-out rhymes in the fourth volume of 
the Bnvs AND Girls Bookshelf. 



What the Baby's Sense of Humor is Like 

This leads us to say that a baby's sense of 
humor always has a physical quality. This may 
consisf merely of an amazing conglomeration of 
sounds, such as the familiar quotation : 

"With a rowley, powley. gammon and spinach, 
Heigho, says Anthony Rowley." 

Such humor may be expressed in vigorous rhyme, 
as the following : 

"As I was going up and down, 
I met a little dandy, 
He pulled my nose, and with two blows, 
I knocked him down right handy." 

Or, it may consist simply of such an incident as 
the following: 

"Said my mother to your mother. 
It's a chop-a-nose day," 

which is followed of course immediately by the 
appropriate action. 

A calmer kind of humor is expressed in the 
following pleasant adventure : 

"Little Tommy Grace had a pain in his face, 
So bad that he could not learn a letter ; 
When in came Dicky Long, singing such a funny 
song. 
Then Tommy laughed, and found his lace much 
better." 

The First Animal-Stories 

It is interesting to note that the adventure- 
stories in Mother Goose may be divided into 
two sorts. One kind has to do with the familiar 
animals, such as the tragi-comedy of the three 
little kittens who lost their mittens, while the 
other is drama, such as a little cock-sparrow and 
the boy who missed him: — • 

"Oh, no," said the sparrow, "I won't make a stew," 
And he flapped his wings and away he flew. 

Children like action-stories of animal-adventure 
long before they are old enough for Uncle Re- 
mus, such as 

"Dog ! dog ! bite pig ; 
Piggy won't go over the stile ; 
And I shan't get home to-night." 

Or, again, the fox who went out in a hungry 
plight, closing with the denouement so satisfac- 
tory to the children : 

"And the little ones picked the bones, O." 



104 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Grandmother-Stories 

The other kind of adventure-story familiar to 
Mother Goose is, strange to say, concerned with 
old people. The predominance of old women in 
these stories can be explained only, I suppose, by 
the loving presence of so many grandmothers who 
assist in carrying down these nursery traditions 
from generation to generation. There is Old 
Mother Hubbard, the Old Woman who lived in 
a shoe, the Old Woman who was tossed up in a 
basket, the Old Woman who had her skirts cut 
of¥ up to her back, and Old King Cole. 

In fact, all the people in Mother Goose were 
either very old or very young. Aside from the 
elderly individuals whom you chance to remember, 
we have Little Miss MufTet, Little Polly Flinders, 
Little Boy Blue, Little Johnnie Green, Jack 
Horner, Little Tommy Tucker, and Simple Simon. 
These little folk are much more real to our nur- 
sery comrades than Washington, Lincoln, and 
Roosevelt, and are twice as familiar as Aloses, 
Solomon, David, and Paul. 

The Unmorality of Mother Goose 

I suppose one of the reasons why little chil- 
dren enjoy Mother Goose is because these are 
stories without a moral ; they are, as children 
themselves are said to be, unmoral, rather than 
immoral. Aside from the occasional savagery, 
the tone is usually that of pleasantness: 

"What are little girls made of? 

Sugar and spice and all that's nice !" 

"And why may not I love Johnny, 

And why may not Johnny love me? 
And why may not I love Johnny 
As well as another body?" 

" 'Coo !' said the little doves, 

'Coo !' said she ; 
And they played together kindly 
In the dark pine tree." 

There is occasionally a moral situation, like the 
story of the kittens who 

"First began to quarrel, and then to fight" 

with the sequel : 

"They found it was better, that stormy night. 
To lie down to sleep than to quarrel and fight." 



The only rhyme that occurs to us with a direct 
moral lesson is : 

"Come when you're called. 
Do what you're bid; 
Shut the door after you, 
Never be chid." 

Just after the Revolution, an edition of Mother 
Goose was published in New England by a man 
named Thomas, who fitted out fifty-one of the 
Mother Goose rhymes with what was then thought 
appropriate "morals." For example : 

"Dickery, Dickery, Dock, 
The mouse ran up the clock" 

suggests the lesson: "Time stays for no man." 

"Hey diddle, diddle. 
The cat and the fiddle, 

The cow jumped over the moon; 
The little dog laughed 
To see such craft, 

And the dish ran away with the spoon." 

This verse suggests the highly moral deduction 
that "It must have been a little dog that laughed, 
for a great dog would be ashamed to laugh at 
such nonsense." 
To the rhyme 

"Up, down — up, down, 
One foot up and one foot down 
All the way to London town, 
Tra la la la la la" 



the author appends : 
of the earth." 



"Or to any town on the face 



"Hush-a-bye, baby, in the tree-top" 

may serve, he thinks, "as a warning to the proud 
and ambitious, who climb so high that they 
generally fall at last." Fortunately, the edition 
is out of print — the children would have none of it. 

The Graded Use of Mother Goose 

The golden age for the use of Mother Goose 
rhymes is for the years from one to six. These 
rhymes are useful to babies because they indulge 
their sense of rhythm, give them exciting experi- 
ences at second-hand, and open to them the gates 
of story. They are useful to the older ones be- 
cause they may be employed in their singing 
games, their counting-out games, and their games 
of running and chasing. 



REASONING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD* 

BY 

JOHN DEWEY 



There is not any reasoning of early childhood 
which is different from the reasoning of later 
childhood, adolescence, or adults. There is rea- 
soning in little children, just as there may be in 
a grown-up man or woman, but there is not rea- 
soning of early childhood if you mean by that 
"of," something which as reasoning can be marked 
off definitely from reasoning somewhere else. 

The ends which a young child has are different 
from those of the grown-up ; and the materials, 
means, and habits which he is able to fall back 
upon are different, but the process — one involv- 
ing these three factors — is exactly the same. 

There is a difference which needs to be men- 
tioned because it is so important practically. Just 
because the child's ends are not so complex and 
not so remote in the future, the tendency to put 
every idea in immediate action is stronger with 
the child. His dramatic instinct or his play im- 
pulse is markedly more active, more urgent and 
intense. Adults use words and other symbols as 
the media for selection and arrangement, but 
words are not dramatic enough for the thinking 
of the child in a great many situations. He wants 
to reach his end with his whole body instead of 
doing it with the muscles of the throat and tongue 
alone. Adults carry on a constant physical activity 
of a suppressed kind; to get a remote and far- 
reaching end, they employ minute and invisible 
kinds of expression. A child wants to bring into 
play, in an active and overt way, his hands and 
arms and legs. 

How We Dissipate Reasoning Power 

While native rational power can hardly be im- 
proved to any great extent, if at all, it can easily 
be allowed to decrease. A child can be sur- 
rounded with conditions which cause the power 
to be dissipated and rendered ineffective. If a 
jChild is bright, the power can be drafted off in all 
kinds of futile and irrelevant ways which result 
in mind-wandering, inability to control the atten- 
tion or center the mind on a topic around which 
the selecting and arranging of materials are to 
be carried on. 

This dissipation may take place in three ways : 



1. Plain frittering away of time. It is called 
frittering away of time or wasting time, but this 
is merely another phrase for fooling away in- 
tellectual energy. This comes from not having 
any purpose in view. "Amusing." in the w'orst 
sense of amusing, means that there is no recrea- 
tive element, but only dissipation of energy. It 
is not enough to catch a child's attention ; it must 
be used, and this implies an end. The mind 
should be carried on to something new. 

2. Another thing which makes for retrogression 
is the amount of purely dictated work that the 
individual has to do. Undoubtedly the best way 
to train animals — horses and dogs — to do their 
stunts is to assign a specific thing to be done, dic- 
tate it, and give a reward w'hen that particular 
thing is accomplished — and something else when 
it is not done. Children are animals, too. It may 
be that physical habits are most readily formed 
by a process which is largely dictation; but it 
must be borne in mind that in the latter case, 
w-hile the physical habit will have intellectual 
meaning to us, to the child it will be senseless, 
and hence his mental capacity may be reduced. 

3. The third thing which has a detrimental 
effect upon the child is presenting ready-made, 
finished formula: upon the basis of which he is to 
act. Since there should be reaching out for some- 
thing new, the process should be more or less a 
process of trying this or that to see how it will 
work, then retaining the things that carry toward 
the end and dropping the other things. Con- 
scientious teachers are prone perhaps to fail here 
more than at any other point. They want to fore- 
stall all failures. They want to dig the little plant 
up by the roots to see that the roots are growing — 
and growing in the right direction. It is quite 
safe to say that no two grown persons get the 
same result by the same method unless the situa- 
tion is an exceedingly simple one. 

Let Him Get His Own Results 

The orderly method is good, but it comes as a 
result and often comparatively late. What might 
seem to a grown-up person to be disorder might 
seem to a child's mind, order, in the way he se- 



* Stenographic report of a paper presented before the Department of Kindergarten Education, Teachers College Alumni 
Conference. Used by special permission of Patty Smith Hill, head of the Department. 



io6 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



lects and arranges things. The mere fact that 
a certain order of thinking does not fall into the 
teacher's schedule of thinking means that a child 
is one person and the teacher another. Yet we 
imagine that there is just one right way to think, 
and if another person does not get results in the 
same way that we do, we conclude that there is 
something wrong. 

Perhaps the most difficult thing to get is in- 
tellectual sj'mpathy and intellectual insight that 
will enable one to provide the conditions for an- 
other person's thinking and yet allow that other 
person to do his thinking in his own way and not 
according to some scheme which we have prepared 
in advance. 

Handwork and Fellowship 

There is one point which has not been touched 
— the question of the materials appropriate for the 
thinking of young children. This matter can not 
be easily anticipated or cleared up in advance of 
actual contact with actual children. But we may 
ask what ends occupy the attention of most chil- 
dren. They will be found to fall under two 
heads : 

I. The very small child has as his chief end the 
adjusting of one of his physical organs to another. 
He has to learn what the lower animals have to 
start with. He has to work out by practical ex- 
perimentation how to make his hand and eyes 
work together, his ears and eyes work together, 
how to manage and manipulate physical materials 
by means of his own organs. Here we have one 



of the great reasons, on the physiological side, for 
the success of the kindergarten movement. In 
various ways it has secured a large opportunity 
for direct muscular adjusting, and for manipula- 
tion of various kinds of objects. If the young 
child has an end which he wants to reach and has 
sufficient freedom in choice and arrangement of 
materials to work out for liimsdf the end he is 
after, there is sure to be a genuine keeping-going 
of the thinking process. 

2. The "other great problem for a little child 
is to get along with other people. He has the 
definite occupation of adjusting his conduct, in a 
real give-and-take of intercourse to that of others. 
He needs to make other people realities to him- 
self, while he gets the power to make himself real 
to them. There is an adjustment of behavior 
which includes a good deal more than that of out- 
ward or muscular acts. The questions arising 
from the groupings of persons are the most 
perplexing problems of life even for grown-up 
people ; but for the children, the problem is es- 
pecially acute, owing to their dependence upon 
others and their inability to make their way physi- 
cally and industrially. 

Material selected then from situations of physi- 
cal control and social adaptation (especially from 
the two in connection with one another) is most 
appropriate in maintaining the mental acuteness, 
flexibility, and open-mindedness, the dominant in- 
terest in the new and in reaching ahead that are 
at once such marked traits of the life of child- 
hood and such essential factors of thinking. 



HOW A SPOILED CHILD BEGINS 



BY 



KATHERINE BEEBE 



When the new group comes to school in Septem- 
ber its members can at once be roughly classified 
into two divisions : the trained and the untrained. 
The former are the teacher's delight, the latter 
her problem. The former can be led onward and 
upward by means of a normal and joyous ac- 
tivity without friction or loss of time. The 
latter must be worked over, wept over, experi- 
mented with, disciplined, and led as far along 
the road as their unfortunate variety of handi- 
caps will permit. 

The child whose everyday education has been 
a matter of conscious and conscientious effort is, 
at five years old, wide awake mentally, interested, 
active, self -controlled, obedient, sometimes well 



mannered, and always reasonable and teachable. 
The untrained child is unawakened, often slow 
of perception, uninteresting, self-conscious, fool- 
ishly unreasonable and lacking in self-control and 
the spirit of cooperation. His mother usually as- 
scribes these characteristics to nervousness, and 
justly so, for the lack of training is apt to cause» 
this condition. 

Now what has happened at home to two such 
little creatures equally endowed at birth? What 
is the reason for this unhappy difiference? Tlie 
answer is in the fact that the mother of the one 
child, from the first intimation of his existence, 
has consciously and constantly reasoned with 
herself in some such way as this: "This little 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



107 



new life will come to me possessed with a growing 
body, an expanding mind, a developing soul. Dur- 
ing the first years his growth will be so rapid 
and so vigorous that what he learns will set the 
tendencies for his whole future. He will get in 
proportion more education in the first five years 
than in the twenty which follow, and this edu- 
cation will be an everyday education. During 
all his waking hours he will be learning, observ- 
ing, absorbing. Everything he sees, everything 
he hears, everything he does, will count. If I 
want him' to be strong, alert, wise, and good I 
must begin at the beginning and carry on ; I must 
learn from the best authorities how to care for 
his precious body ; I must take counsel with ex- 
perts in child-training for the sake of his open- 
ing mind; I must talk to him, walk with him, play 
with him, read to him ; I must provide for him a 
place in which to play as well as to eat and sleep; 
I must see that he has playmates ; I must teach 
him to play alone, to entertain himself; he must 
learn to love to work, first by helping me and 
later by having set tasks; I must know where he 
is and what he is doing all the time, and we two 
must be loving, sympathetic, intimate friends." 

And that other mother — what does she say to 
herself conscioitsly or subconsciously? Let us be 
honest and face the facts, for judging by her 
results it is something like this: "It is lovely to' 
have this darling baby, and I am just going to en- 
joy him in my own way; I don't believe that peo- 
ple who make such a fuss about training children 
get on any better than those of us who don't 
bother about alf this modern highbrow stuiT. A 
mother knows best what to do for her own child. 
Of course I will take good care of his body, for 
I want him to be well, but for the first few years 
I am going to let him be a happy little animal. I 



don't like to play with children anj'way, and read- 
ing to them is a bore. Besides, I am too busy. 
He can just play around as other children do and, 
when the time comes, go to kindergarten and to 
school and be taught there. While he is at home 
and while he is my baby, I am going to do just 
as I want to with him. Being my child, he will, 
of course, come out all right in the end." 

Now sometimes he does, but in spite of home 
influences rather than because of them. Thanks 
to his teachers, his companions, and the sharp 
lessons of experience, he often manages to grow 
up a fairly decent man. But, oh, what he has 
missed ! And alas for the powers of mind and 
soul which never unfolded, for the spiritual de- 
velopment unpossessed which might have been 
his! 

On the other hand, often he doesn't develop 
well, and in view of this fact, how does any 
mother dare to take chances ? For from the ranks 
of the so-called and well-called, "spoiled children" 
come the fretful, fractious, screaming, unhappy 
babies ; the shy, self-conscious, and uncontrolled 
kindergarten children; the irresponsible scatter- 
brains of the public school, whose school life is 
one long series of adjustments between parents 
and teachers; those high-school students who ar- 
rive in college with no powers of work or con- 
centration; the girl who is "boy crazy"; the boy 
who goes wrong. From this class are recruited 
those children whom every teacher knows ; who 
have perverted ideas of the facts of life and bad 
physical habits; those youths and maidens whose 
lives are blighted on the threshold; those cases 
of adolescents which furnish newspaper articles 
sometimes with large headlines. In the light of 
the fact that these things are all about us, how 
does any mother dare to neglect that all-important 
thing — her child's everyday education? 



TEACHING SELF-CONTROL* 



MRS. MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M.D. 



Mrs. Clayton is a young mother, inexperienced 
in the care of infants, but, having paid much at- 
tention to the study of psychology of childhood, 
she has some foundation principles upon which 
she intends to build the superstructure of her 
child's character. He is a strong, active little 
fellow, with a brain ever on the alert, and it will 



* From "Makine: the Best of Our Children,' 
publishers, Chicago. 

K.N,— 9 



oy Mary W 



take much patience and skill for her to direct his 
developing energies in right channels. 

One of her especially strong points is her belief 
that the child must have an opportunity to get 
acquainted with himself, and this for many months 
will be his principal occupation: therefore she 
does not thrust her presence upon him continually. 

ood-AUen. Used by permission of A. C. McClurg & Company, 



io8 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



He is allowed to He upon the bed or on the floor, 
to study his little hands and to make the aimless 
movements which are acquainting him with his 
own powers. His feet are left free to kick, and 
so he is getting acquainted with himself and the 
world. He spends his infancy generally within 
sight and hearing of the mother, and sometimes 
in closer and dearer companionship, which, be- 
cause not constant, has for him all the delight 
of a visit. By this plan she is left free a greater 
part of the time to attend to her household duties. 

As he grows old enough to sit in his high-chair, 
he is sometimes placed at the table, that he may 
have the companionship of his parents: but he is 
not fed at this time, because he has his own 
regular meals of especially prepared foods at 
stated intervals. He thus early learns the lesson 
that his parents may eat things which are not per- 
mitted to him. At first Mrs. Clayton gave him a 
spoon with which to amuse himself while papa and 
mamma were eating. The first time he dropped 
the spoon upon the floor, she instinctively re- 
turned it to him ; he took it and at once threw it 
down upon the floor, watching it with apparent 
pleasure. 

"Ah," said Mrs. Clayton, ''he has made a dis- 
covery. He has learned that he can drop things. 
Now he must make another discovery — that 
things which he drops do not come back to him." 
So no attention was paid to his pleading that the 
spoon should be restored. A few such e.xperi- 
ences told him, better than slapped fingers and 
impatient words, that if he desired to retain an 
article as a plaything when he was up in the high- 
chair, he must not throw it upon the floor. 

When he grew old enough so that his dinner- 
time came at the same hour as that of his par- 
ents, Mrs. Clayton thought it a good thing that 
he should begin to learn table-manners in com- 
pany with other people. So he was permitted to 
take his dinner with them; but this did not mean 
that he was to eat of everything placed upon 
the table. There were certain articles of food 
which his parents might eat which were forbid- 
den to him. For example, he was not allowed 
potatoes, Mrs. Clayton having learned that these 
starchy foods are not the best for little children. 
When first he made request that potatoes should 
be given him, he was pleasantly told that "pota- 
toes were for papa and mamma and not for 



Freddy." As he was not accustomed to rebelling 
against the decisions of his parents, he accepted 
the statement as law and cheerfully abided by it. 
Sometimes when there were guests in the family 
a little spirit of mischief would seem to possess 
him, and he would ask for potatoes. When he 
would receive the usual reply, he would sing in 
apparently high glee, "Tatoes for papa and mam- 
ma, not for Freddy." 

"I do not see how you can refuse to give your 
child the food which you put before him on the 
table and which you yourself eat," guests would 
sometimes say. Mrs. Clayton would reply: 

"All through life he will be obliged to see many 
things which he can not appropriate to himself; 
the sooner and the more happily he learns this 
lesson, the better it will be for him. I deny him 
nothing that is not hurtful, and I am sure that he 
knows that, just as far as possible, I give him the 
things he wants." 

Certainly it would seem as if this were the 
case, for the little fellow seemed to find it no hard- 
ship to refuse candies, fruits, and cake when of- 
fered him by neighbors, with the simple words, 
"Why, I don't eat cake," or "My mamma doesn't 
• allow me to eat between meals," which to him 
seemed a sufficient reason for not accepting the 
proffered gifts. 

When he was a baby, Mrs. Clayton did not 
carry him constantly in her arms as she went 
about her work. He was accustomed to seeing 
her go in and out of the room without being con- 
sulted in the matter. As he grew older she used 
to say to him, if she knew she would be absent 
from the room for some time, "Now mamma is 
going upstairs to make the beds": or "Mamma is 
going down cellar after potatoes." Very fre- 
quently she would permit him to accompany her, 
but always as a favor to him. He might, for ex- 
ample, take his little tin pail and go with her to 
the cellar and bring up a couple of apples for 
himself, which were then put in a pan and baked 
for his dinner ; but if the mother was too busy 
to allow him this privilege, he learned that it 
was no use to tease. And so, while in the first 
place, her plan of management took rather more 
time than to have yielded to his wishes, in the 
end it secured for him more happiness, for her 
more leisure, and for the whole family far more 
peace. 



SUMMARY AND FORECAST 




^r^^f^3^^\ff=^ 



QOD 



THE SECOND YEAR WITH TOM AND SARAH 



BY 



WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 



Grandfather and Grandmother Spencer were 
abroad part of the twins' second year. As soon 
as they reached home they hurried over to see the 
babies. 

The first interview was a trifle disappointing. 
Before Grandpa went away he had sat for hours 
with one child on each arm, talking to them while 
they smiled at him, or holding them while they 
slept. But upon this occasion Sarah gave one 
wild yell as soon as she came in contact with 
his gray beard, while Tom struggled wildly to 
escape, and then surveyed the visitor suspiciously 
from a crouching position under the table. Mr. 
Spencer was evidently hurt. 

"Don't you think the kids have come on finely ?" 
their father asked with pride, when he entered the 
room. Grandma smiled, and Grandpa said noth- 
ing but, "I would not have known them." 

"What's the matter?" Frank insisted, seeing 
that there was a slight rift within the lute. "Cer- 
tainly, Mary hasn't spoiled them — yet?" 

"They don't seem so affectionate, somehow," 
Mr. Spencer confessed, "and I don't get used to 
this perpetual motion. Do they run all the time, 
and squirm every time you try to take them up?" 

"I guess they do. That's what they've been do- 
ing lately, isn't it, Mary? Don't your books say 
it's the normal thing to expect?" 

"They do. Mother, Frank is laughing at me 
again. The other day he picked out this sentence 
in my library: 'A baby sanctifies home, and gives 
the doctor a chance to look wise.' He sometimes 
tells me these child-study doctors would have to 
write their books over if they once spent a week- 
end with the twins. But he had to confess, as he 
went on, that one of them, at least, showed pretty 
good sense, after all. I think I must tell you what 



he said, Father, since you have become critical of 
my babies." 

Mr. Spencer held up a deprecatory hand. 

The Twins Prove that They Have Brains 

"Well," the mother continued, "it is like this: 
The twins can not always be babes- in arms ; we 
know that, and none of us would have them so. 
Now, what is the next step? My charts tell me 
that this second year is a great 'getting-about' 
year. The babies are so strong and agile that I 
have seen both of them, toward the end of a long 
day, when they had been on their feet most of the 
time, jump up and down, just out of excess of 
vitality. Of course they don't seem so affection- 
ate or cuddlesome, and they are much harder to 
take care of. But here is where one of those 
wise 'doctors' helped me. William James says they 
are beginning to "unlock their energies with ideas.' 
Isn't that a happy expression? If I thought they 
were banging about, simply to put my nerves on 
edge, as I did for a while. I couldn't stand it 
much longer; but when I realize that they really 
have brains and are getting ideas, I am quite jolly 
about it." 

"Well you may be," remarked Grandfather, with 
a more contented look. "But what makes you so 
sure that they are 'getting ideas,' as you say?" 

"By the way they play. Naturally, I try to 
supply them with playthings that 'go,' because 
they are on the go so much themselves. They 
both like to roll a ball, though they can neither 
guide nor catch it. They try to build up blocks, 
though they like to knock them down better. But 
these are not their favorites. You will laugh 
when I tell you what they like to play with most: 



lOQ 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



a little broom, some hooks and hangers, and — the 
coal-hod." 

Grandmother smiled reminiscently. 

"They don't seem to care for little toys at all," 
Mary said, turning in her direction. "I suppose 
because their finer muscles aren't developed yet." 

"But you. haven't told us yet how they play," 
Mr. Spencer insisted. 

"Oh, yes. I read one day, in an article on 'Self- 
Amusement,' this : 

" 'Children know how to enjoy life better than 
their parents, but their way is not our way, nor their 
thoughts as our thoughts. A little child is a creature 
of one idea.' 

"So I began to say to myself, 'What is the twins' 
one idea'? As I carefully watched them and then 
looked back in my little notebook that I keep I 
made up my mind that it is this: They are bound 
to learn by imitating. Last year they learned by 
handling. They grasped everything, they held it 
fast, they turned it over, looked at it, felt of it, 
put it in their mouths. They still do this with 
anything that is new. but that is not enough now. 
They are interested in action ; they want to do 
something with it; they want to know what it is 
for." 

Their Dogged Imitativeness 

"Tell Father how patient they are." 

"Yes, Frank is very proud of this. I said they 
were interested in action. They never seem to 
tire of trying anything that they have seen either 
of us do. One day I put Sarah's spoon in her 
hand, partly filled it with oatmeal, and carried the 
spoon and her hand up toward her mouth. This 
gave her a new idea, and instantly she dashed the 
spoon down into the dish again and lifted it to 
her mouth, empty of course. Will you believe it, 
that child has tried this movement three times a 
day ever since for five months, and it was not 
until last week that she really got a good spoon- 
ful into her mouth." 

"Here's another thing," Frank broke in again, 
"both Sarah and Tom imitate me much more 
readily than they do Mary." Frank sat back and 
beamed with satisfaction. 

"It's the novelty, of course," Mary explained. 
"They don't see Frank as much as they do me, and 
the things he does are more unusual. Still, day 
in and day out, there is nothing that they re- 
spond to more joyfully than the suggestion to 
'do like mamma,' and I am looking forward to its 
meaning that they will very soon really be quite 
helpful. Already they 'sweep' with their little 



brooms; they never tire of hanging up father's 
hat and coat, and I'm sure they would 'carry coal' 
all day if I could afford to wash their rompers 
every night. I think I see in this the opportunity 
for the beginning of orderliness and tidiness. If 
I accustom them to pick up their playthings now 
when they are through with them, and if I have 
the hooks and shelves and boxes where they can 
reach them, I do not see why they should ever 
know that disorderliness is possible." 

"Remember that one of them is a boy," was 
Grandma's reminder. 

How Much Do Two-Year-Olds Remember? 

"Do they have any memory yet?" inquired Mr. 
Spencer. 

"In spots," was the rejoinder. "Here is an 
illustration to show how they are coming on : A 
year ago every time one of them squeezed a rub- 
ber doll and it squeaked, it was a fresh surprise. 
Now each of them will hunt up the doll in order 
to squeeze it. You haven't heard them talk yet, 
but the other day Tom pointed to the kitchen 
floor and said, 'Ya, ya. Mamma, IMamma, fa', fa',' 
quite excitedly. He evidently remembered that 
the morning before I had slipped at that spot on 
a potato peel, and he was trying to tell the story 
of the adventure. Of course they don't carry 
what we call 'a train of memory' yet." 

"No," said Frank, "their cars are not all 
coupled. Can anything be done about it ?" 

"What do you think?" Mary appealed to her 
mother. 

"Why, you still sing to them, don't you, and 
repeat little rhymes, as you did before we went 
away?" 

"Yes, and Frank and I both teach them finger- 
plays and little action-games, and I have even 
begun stories — that is, I call them stories; I try 
to tell in very simple language something that 
has happened to themselves very recently. Once 
or twice they have tried to tell it back to me." 

The Grandparents Approve the New 
Notions 

"Mary has a good head," was her father's 
comment, as he walked home with his wife that 
evening. 

"Yes, I am very much pleased with the thought- 
fulness she shows about the children. It is so dif- 
ferent from what it was in our day. In the old 
times we believed what we called 'mother-instinct' 
would work miracles. And yet I was only a 
half-mature girl just out of finishing school when 
Mary was born. Of course I loved her and I 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



bought a 'doctor's book' that was good for its 
day. I kept her well and knew enough not to 
feed her soothing-syrups, but nobody then thought 
a child needed anything but bodily care. 'Let it 
grow up a healthy animal,' was the notion, and 
it would come out all right. I do remember that 
the second year was a difficult year, but why it 
was difficult and what to do about it was beyond 
us. We just stuck it through, using the best 
sense we had. The difference is just this : I 
used to find out what to do when it ^was almost 
too late, but Mary, with her reading and studying, 
knows in advance what is likely to happen, and 
is all ready for it. And how much more im- 
portant it is to know what to do for their little 
minds and souls than for their bodies !" 

"You are quite right," Mr. Spencer said, with 
conviction. "Frank and I used to make fun of 
Mary's 'charts.' 'The wind bloweth where it 
listeth, and so does a child, and no two of them 
are alike,' I used to tell her. But I declare, there 
do seem to be certain main-traveled roads that 
they all follow, and even if they don't all pass 
the stations on time, I guess they do pass them 
after a while and in pretty much the same order." 

Why the Youngsters Were So Shy 

"Do you think Father and Mother were sat- 
isfied ?" Mary Howard asked Frank after her 
parents were gone. 

"With you, but evidently not with the children." 

"Yes; what was the matter with them to-night? 
Both of them acted frightened to death, and they 
didn't either of them really get reconciled during 
the whole evening." 

"What do the books say?" 

"Let's look this up and find out." 

"One of my 'weather prophets,' as you call my 
Charts, says : 'Fears many and lively,' and the 
other says, 'Protect from fears and teasing,' so 
evidently this phase is not unusual. I remember 
now realizing that, since babies of this age haven't 
any imagination yet, they are frightened princi- 
pally by sudden things and by shocks. I guess 
just as soon as they get used to Grandpa again 
they won't be afraid of him, but I don't believe 
he will ever be able again to hold them still, unless 
he learns to tell them stories." 

"I'll warrant the old gentleman will be a good 
one at that." 

"There is one good thing about these fears of 
theirs — it teaches them Trust. They do believe 
in us implicitly, Frank. They think you are so 
strong and I am so wise. It makes me tremble 
to feel how much they expect. I do pray that 



they may never lose this confidence, and some- 
how I hope that it may be through this that we 
may, when it is possible, lead them to trust in 
God." 
"I hope so," Frank said, soberly. 

Even a Baby Is Reasonable 

"There was one thing I forgot to tell Father," 
Mary remarked suddenly. 

"What is that?" 

"About the reasonableness of the children." 

Frank laughed out loud. "I believe almost 
everything you say, Mary, but that is beyond my 
grasp. Of all the irrational, unreasoning objects 
in this world, if it is not babies " 

"Listen, Frank. Who is the best-known edu- 
cator in America to-day?" 

"John Dewey, I should say." 

"Perhaps you will listen to him," Mary re- 
sponded quietly, taking a volume down from her 
shelf. 

"'There is not any reasoning of early childhood 
which is different from the reasoning of later child- 
hood, adolescence, or adults. I have come to believe 
that reasoning itself, the capacity or ability to reason, 
is not capable of being improved.' " 

Mary looked up triumphantly. 

"John Dewey says so. Now prove it," said 
Frank. 

"Of course the twins do not know so much or 
understand so much as we do. They think about 
different things than we do and " 

"I should think they did!" 

"But they follow the same sort of line of 
thought from cause to efifect. You ask me to 
prove it. How do the twins prove things? If 
I tell them that fire burns, that is not enough 
for them. They must reason it out, and they 
do it in just the same order we would, if this 
truth were a new idea to us : namely. Flame, 
touch, burn„ pain, 'Don't !' " 

"All right. Tell that to Father." 

"What I wanted to tell Father was that 'this 
noisy, restless activity' of theirs, which tires him 
so, is mostly the exercise of curiosity." 

"The animated 'why,' as it were." 

"Yes. All day long they are experimenting, 
proving anew what are to us the old facts and 
truths ; in other words, using their reason." 

"Is this use of their reason what we might call 
'moral reasonableness'? Take it in obeying, for 
example. Are the children reasonable about 
that?" 

"Of course, obedience is to them so far mostly 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



the habit of submission, of coming when they 
are called and of doing what they are told. But 
surely whenever they carry out a new command 
they have to use some reason and reasonableness, 
too, about it. 1 am the one who has to try hardest 
to be reasonaljle, so far." 

Why Little William Couldn't Talk 

Just before the children were two years old 
Helen Walker, Mary Howard's old schoolmate, 
dropped in one day, on her way back to her dis- 
tant home, to renew old associations. Of course 
the babies were the chief center of interest, 
especially because Mrs. Walker had a little one 
of her own, a boy a month older than the twins. 

"The most wonderful thing to me about your 
children," exclaimed her friend, "is the way they 
talk ! Why, they put whole phrases and sen- 
tences together, but my young William hardly 
says a word." 

"No doubt he puts up a lot of thinking, though," 
kindly suggested Frank, for they were all at the 
supper-table. 

"I certainly hope so, Mr. Howard. But. Mary, 
you don't think he is incurably backward, do 
you?" 

"Not at all, Helen. Many children do not be- 
gin to talk until they are three years old. Of 
course, ours are twins and no doubt they inspire 
each other, but perhaps you can help, too. How 
does little William spend the day?" 

"Mostly in a big clothes-basket that I keep in 
his little nursery and bedroom. I pile him and 
his playthings into it and he stays there alone 
nearly all the time. Sidney, my husband, you 
know, is quite ingenious, and when he found the 
baby was trying to learn to stand up by leaning 
against the sides, he weighted it some way with 
iron bars on the bottom, so he can't topple over." 

"Does he walk very much?" 

"Not nearly so well as your twins do. There 
isn't much room in the basket to get about. But 
when he was little my doctor told me to keep 
him quiet and away from company, so his nerves 
would have a chance to get strong." 

"But, Helen Walker, he didn't tell you to keep 
William there all his life, did he? What he said 
about the baby's nerves was very important — for 
the first six or eight months, and you are quite 
right not to expose him often to strangers. But 
I do believe that the reason little William Walker 
is dumb is because he doesn't get enough con- 
versation." 

"What do you mean ? What is the use of talk- 
ing to him when be doesn't understand?" 



"This is the way to make him understand : 
When the twins were but a few months old I 
made it a rule never to hand them anything with- 
out giving its name out loud. Often I would put 
it in the form of a question : 'Do you want your 
bottle? Do you want your rubber doll?' and I 
would always wait until they responded in some 
way, even if no more than by reaching for it, 
to be sure they were attentive and understood. 
After a while I would say gently: 'Now, say 
"bottle," say "doll,",' and even though they did 
not seem to try at once, after a while they caught 
the idea, and I am sure this helped them forward. 
Later I would withhold the thing they wanted 
until they tried to say the name of it." 

No Need for Baby-Talk 

"Isn't this interesting? What were the words 
they spoke first?" 

"Papa, of course," Frank interrupted. 

"Fathers always make that claim, don't they? 
Really, I think the first thing he said was 'da,' 
which they always did when they were pointing, 
and which I suppose later grew to be our excla- 
mation, 'There.' Perhaps after repeating it when 
one of us was present it grew to mean 'Mamma' 
or 'Papa.' I don't know. At any rate, I know 
this: nouns were the first words they used, such 
as 'Papa,' 'milk,' 'doll.' and so on; then they added 
'da,' meaning 'there' 3.nd 'don,' meaning 'gone,' 
and 'no. no.' Now they have a few adjectives, 
like 'hot,' 'nice,' and 'good' — and I guess that's 
pretty nearly their whole stock in trade." 

"But I notice that they don't use any baby- 
talk. Didn't they ever make up any?" 

"Of course they did, and such funny words, 
too. Sarah called her dress a 'desh' and a biscuit 
a 'bittitch' and butter 'bup.' I put all these down 
in my diary, but I didn't ever use them, for what 
is the good of letting them have so many things 
to unlearn, when the kids have a whole hard 
language to learn anyhow? Frank did try to 
spoil them by teaching them some impossible 
words, just to see what they would make of 
them." 

"Oh, do tell me." 

"I just taught them a few trifles, like 'hippo- 
potamus,' 'Mesopotamia,' and 'kangaroo'," Frank 
replied quietly. 

"And what happened?" 

"The little beggars tried every one " 

"So patiently," Mary added. 

" 'Hippopotamus' came out as 'ippepotany,' 
'kangaroo' was 'kooglegfoo' and 'Mesopotamia' 



FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND BIRTHDAY 



"3 



was just — a 'mes.' But I thought it was fine 
practice for them.'' 

"Perhaps it was," their mother granted. 

"Well," said Helen Walker on departing, "I 
am going right home and teach William the 
English language. He shall go hungry until he 
speaks up for his breakfast, hereafter." 

"The better way," suggested Mary Howard 
pleasantly, "to get him to talk will be to make life 
interesting to him." 

Milestones of the Second Year 

When Mr. and Mrs. Howard sat down together 
to make their review of the second year, they 
were quite impressed with the results. 

"I would never have believed," exclaimed 
Frank, "that a baby's year could tell such a defi- 
nite story. With us who are older, one year is 
about like another, but this second year stands 
out just as distinctly from last year as an angle on 
a chart or a compartment in a cabinet." 

"I wouldn't go so far as that," his wife re- 
sponded cautiously. "It seems to me more like 
a winding road with mile-stones, or a stream with 
special points of interest on the bank. I mean 
that it is not something still and stiff like a box, 
but more like a river — it flows. What we see this 
year comes out of last year, and I suppose it will 
pour on into next year." 

"I believe you are right." the father acknowl- 
edged. "But what I meant to emphasize is that 
what we can learn from your records is so defi- 
nite that it is most helpful in understanding the 
children and knowing how to meet their problems. 



I don't see how mothers can get along without 
making some such careful study as yours." 

"I don't think they can — very well." 

"Here it is in a nutshell," Frank added, picking 
up the notes they had jotted down together that 
very evening. "This year has been a 'getting 
about' year. They have learned to walk, to run, 
to exercise, and to explore, constantly. The next 
thing I notice is the way their senses have de- 
veloped. They are much more quick to notice 
rhythm when you play the piano, and they both 
enjoy musical sounds." 

"And they try to make them, too." 

"With the tin pan ! And they like bright colors 
now, and they enjoy pictures, and they can pick 
out a 'dog' and a 'cat' and a 'motor' and so on, 
and they understand stories when told with the 
pictures. They know the difference between 
rough and smooth, solid and light, round and 
square. They recognize half a dozen of the let- 
ters, and they can count " 

''Up to two," Mary added, laughing. 

"But of course the big thing is that they have 
begim to talk; they understand almost every- 
thing we say. This means that from now on 
we can really teach them, so that next year ought 
to be a splendid one for all of us." 

"I think so. There's one more thing to be 
added : they have learned to help Mother, and I 
do believe that is going to mean more, not only 
in keeping them good and kind, but in educating 
them, than anything else. For if they are with 
me about my work, then my teaching won't be 
formal, like a classroom, but every moment will 
be useful to learn in." 



"There are persons from whom we always expect fairy- 
tokens. Let us not cease to expect them." 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 



CHILD AND MOTHER 

Mother-My-Love, if you'll give me your hand, 
And go where I ask you to wander, 

1 will lead you away to a beautiful land— ^ 
The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder. 

We'll walk in the sweet posie garden out there. 
Where moonlight and starlight are streaming. 

And the flowers and the birds are filling the air 
With the fragrance and music of dreaming. 

There'll be no little tired-out boy to undress. 

No questions or cares to perplex you; 
There'll be no little bruises or bumjjs to caress. 

Nor patching of stockings to vex you. 
For I'll rock you away on a silver-dew stream. 

And sing you to sleep when you're weary; 
And no one shall know of our beautiful dream 

But you and your own little dearie. 

And when I am tired I'll nestle my head 

In the bosom that's soothed me so often ; 
And the wide-awake stars shall sing in my stead 

A song which our dreaming shall soften. 
So, Mother-My-Lovc, let me take your dear hand. 

And away through the starlight we'll wander, 
Away through the mist to the beautiful land — 

The Dreamland that's waiting out yonder. 

• — Author Unknown, 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS 
From the First to the Second Birthday 



Affectionateness, 109 
Animal stories, 103 
Articulation, 99 
Associations, 66, 67 

Baby carriages, 59 
Baby talk, 66. 98, 112 
Bed wetting, 98 
Bird songs, 61, 68 

Charts, 70, IZ 
Clothing, 59 
Color, 68, 76, 83 
Companionship, 106 
Conduct, 69 
Crying, 65 
Curiosity, 111 

Details, Attention to, 86 
Discipline, 69, 94 
Distance, 76 
"Do," not "don't," 64 
Dressing, 69 

Emotional development, 64 
Esthetic taste. 86 
Experience, 66, 80 

Father, 69 
Fears, 64 
Feeling, 76 
Feet, Care of. 59 
Form, 76 
Fortitude, 97 

Getting about year, 109, 113 

Habit of happiness, 94 
Habit training, 65, 93, 9.'* 
Habits, 65 
Hearing, 76, 81 
Helpfulness, 64, 113 
High chairs, 59 
Humor, 67 

Imagination. 67 
Imitation, 63, 110 
Impression, 66 
Interest, 68 

Jealousy, 64 



Manners, 97, 108 
Memory, 65, 66, 91, 110 
Mother Goose, 102 
Mother's songs, 82 

Nature, 82 

Obedience, 94 

Pens. 77, 80 
Personality, 69 
Physical development, 58 
Picture books, 62 
Pictures. 76 
Punishment, 69 

Quiet, 93 

Reasoning, 67, 105, 111 
Records, 63 
Regularity, 93 

Sanitation, 90 

Seeing, 82 

Self-control, 96, 107 

Self-reliance. 105 

Sense development, 78, 113 

Shyness. Ill 

Sight, 75 

Sleep, 93 

Smell, 61, Id, 84 

Sociability. 63 

Solidity. 76 

Speech. 66, 67, 100, 112 

Speech defects, 98 

Spoiled child, 106 

Stories, 100, 101, 111 

Taste, 76. 84 
Temper. 96 
Thumb-sucking, 65, 95 
Touch, 81, 95 
Trips, 83 

Unselfishness, 97 

Vocabulary of second year, 66 

'"Whys," 69 
Will, The, 69 



INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS 



Ball plays, 78, 85 

Bells, 82 

Blocks. 60. 77. 79. 80, 90 

Books for second year, 62 

Bottles. 77, 78 

Classifying objects, 67 
Clay, 60 
Climbing, 75, 77 
Clothes-pins, 60 
Crooning, 76, 100 

Directed play, 96 
Dolls. 78 
Dramatic play. 85 



From the First to the Second Birthday 

Movement plays. 85 

Music for second year, 62, 76, 82, 87 

Odds and ends, 60 

Pictures, 60, 80, 86 

Plasticine, 60 

Playmates, 

Plays of the senses, 85 

Playthings for second year, 59, 11, 78, 84, 110 

Rag-bag, 79 
Rhymes, 103 
Rhvthm, 76, 77, 102 
Ribbons, 60 
Riding games, 101 



Exercises, 77 

Finger plays for second year, 63, 88, 101 

Games for second year, 79 

Handiwork, 89, 106 
Handling things, 61, 79 

Imaginary playmates, 68 
Imaginative play, 66, 69 
Imitative plays, 63, 64, 88 

Kitchen playthings, 61, 67, 79 

Laces, 60 

Matching samples, 61 
Montessori apparatus, 60, 11 



Sand-pile, 60, 90 
Sense games, 89 
Sight-seeing, 83 
Songs, 82 
Sounds, 61 
Speech plays, 66 
Sports, 79 
Stairs, 78 
Swings, 60, 178 

Talking, 

Teeters, 80 

Toys, see Playthings 

Walking, 75, 83 
■V\^ater, 79 

"What is that" game, 61 
Work for second year, 64 



J 



FROM THE 

SECOND TO THE THIRD 

BIRTHDAY 



CONTENTS 

The Course of Training page 

Looking Forward Through the Year William Byron Forbush 117 

A Child's Development and Training the Third Year. ... Mrs. Alice Corbin Sics 119 

Charts 138, 139, 140 

What an Average Child May Be Able to Do By the 

End of This Year Mrs. Elsie LaVcrne Hill 141 

What to Do the Third Year 

Plays and Games for the Third Year Luella A. Palmer 143 

The Baby Yard Mrs. Dorothy Canficld Fisher 144 

Self-Expression During the Third Year Mary L. Read 146 

Big Tools for Small Hands M. V. O'Shca 148 

Playthings Which the Father Can Make H'iUiam A. McKeever, LL.D 149 

Memory-Work with Margaret .1/;-^. Rhea Smith Coleman 151 

Pictures, a Fairyland Mrs. Rhea Smith Coleman 152 

Stories to Tell This Year The Editors 153 

Music During the Third Year Mrs. Jean N. Barrett. 155 

Companionship : How to Furnish It Mrs. Preston F. Gass 157 

Getting Obedience Through Understanding hfrs. Delia Thompson Lutes 159 

Jessie's Beginnings in Helpfulness .Mrs. Elsie LaVcrne Hill 161 

Orderliness and Tidiness Mrs. Caroline Benedict Burrell 165 

Three-Year-Old Virtues Mary L. Read 166 

Summary and Forecast 

The Third Year with Tom and Sarah William Byron Forbush 169 

Index to Subjects Facing 172 

Index to Occupations Facing 172 



ii6 



THE COURSE OF TRAINING 



LOOKING FORWARD THROUGH THE YEAR 



Dear Mother: 

"Playmates and fellow teachers," a phrase out of Mrs. Sies's first article. 
is the keynote of this year. She believes that the way to know one's child is 
to be his playmate, and that he is to teach her as much as she is to teach him. 
Mrs. Sies was, before her marriage, a professor of Childhood Education. 
The same careful, precise methods' that she used to employ in the laboratory 
she uses in trying to understand her child. Do^ not try merely to skim 
through her studies, but read them slowly, over arid over, take up each one, 
as indicated, and become this year — this year when the child is becoming more- 
active, intelligent, and imaginative — his playmate and fellow-teacher. 

The other readings, both in child study and on method, are arranged, as 
before, to be companions of, and to supplement, the .main course of training. 
Read and try out Mrs. Sies's suggestion, and then take the article mentioned 
in the second column and carry the suggestion a little farther. 

"A Child's Development and Training the Third Companion Articles 

Year" 

Mother and Child as Playmates and Fellow-Teachers "Plays and Games for the Third Year." 

"The Baby Yard." 

I. Physical Records and Physical Care "Self-Expression During the Third >'ear." 

II. Physical Activities and Instruction "Big Tools for Small Hands." 

III. Equipment and Material for Home Play "Playthings which the Father Can Make." 

IV. Records of Mental Development "Memory-Work with Margaret." 

V. Methods of Childish Experiment 

VI. Education through walks 

VII. Pictures, Stories, and Poems i!!^''^*"''"- V^n "■^u-'^'C - 

^"Stones to Tell This Year. 

VIII. Speech and Language 

IX. Rhythm "Music During the Third Year." 

X. Dramatic Plays 

XI. Records of Social Development "Companionship: How to Furnish It." 

XII. Training ill Obedience "Getting Obedience through Understanding." 

XIII. Training in Sympathy 

XIV. Training in Affections 

XV. Training in Unselfishness "Jessie's Beginnings in Helpfulness." 

XVI. Training in Orderliness "Orderliness and Tidiness." 

XVII. The Development of Conscience "Three- Year-Old Virtues." 

117 



ii8 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

In last year's "Look Forward" we made a condensed statement of the 
attainments for the second year in a normal child's life, which we may compare 
with a similar forecast for the present (third) year. 

ATTAINMENTS OF THE SECOND YEAR ATTAINMENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR 

Increased body-control Greater control and much use of trunk-muscles 

Better grasping and handling Better manipulation of toys and tools 

More trial-and-success Trial now not blind, but to find out how things act 

More literal imitation Imitation now not only of literal acts but of pur- 

poses 
Use of all the senses Keener susceptibility of the senses 

Speech; broken phrases Speech; sentence-forming 

Occasional memory Voluntary memory, but not continuous 

Primitive reasoning Actions based on more thorough reasoning 

Self-assertion beginning Self-assertion develops into contrariness 

Curiosity constant, expressed by incessant questions 
Play more resourceful and self-directed 
Imagination now constructive and fanciful 
Noticeable affection and sympathy. 

Perhaps the two most noticeable developments of this year are likely to be, 
the distinct sense of Self and a snddcn "breaking-into" imaginativeness. (Com- 
pare the "New Things in Tom and Sarah" in the last article of this year's Course. ) 

This year we can foresee that, without any formal lessons as yet, we at least 
shall be more conscious that we are really teaching and that the child is learn- 
ing; when we give him playthings he will not only handle them better, but his 
plav will be more self-propelling and independent; he will get more ovit of his 
toys, and will have distinct purposes in their use and in his imitation of our 
activities ; he will also be ready for the simplest sort of stories and for little 
home responsibilities. 

May I quote from my "Guide-Book to Childhood" seven main needs which 
nobody but you can supply your child this year: 

1. Food for the hungry senses. 5. Large opportunity for communication and 

2. Means for the legitimate exercise of his expression. 

muscles. 6. Large opportunity for the wliolesome develop- 

3. Right environment and right models for imi- ment of imagination. 

tation. 7. Right beginnings in "habit-formation, 

4. Large opportunity for free experimentation 

with many objects. WiLLIAM ByRON ForbUSII. 



Oh, Mirth and Innocence! Oh, Milk and Water! 
Ye happy mixtures of more happy days. 

— Lord Byron. 



A CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING 
THE THIRD YEAR 

BY 

MRS. ALICE CORBIN SIES 



MOTHER AND CHILD AS PLAYMATES AND FELLOW-TEACHERS 



One day a mother sat by a window mending, 
her sewing-table piled high with clothes which 
must be repaired that afternoon. A child nearly 
three years old pressed constantly against her 
knee, unconsciously seeking, in her companion- 
ship, a human playmate who would respond, in 
loving understanding and in miraculous ways, to 
his questions, requests, and endearments. While 
the mother watched her child's happy play, her 
imagination swept back to her own childhood. 
As in a kaleidoscope she saw shifting scenes of 
happy playtimes with her own busy mother. 

She was awakened from her reveries by the 
child touching her arm, saying, "Do you need 
a cake of ice?" She smiled back into his eager 
eyes, and replied, "Yes, darling! I do need a cake 
of ice. Here is ten cents for it." Happily the 
little boy yielded the block of ice to her keeping, 
extending his hand eagerly for the pretended coin. 
"Now. my motor truck is going to the Mississippi 
River !" he exclaimed. Sliding along* the floor 
on one knee and the tip of the opposite toe, he 
soon reached a corner of the room where blocks 
lay scattered about in confusion. Filling his 
motor truck full of blocks of ice, he made a tour 
of the room, calling from one chair to another, 
"Ice ! Ice !" The mother silently looked on, 
seeing in her child's play the human link con- 
necting the achievements of one generation with 
the succeeding one. 

Soon the play lagged. Again .the child pulled 
at his mother's knee. "I want to get up," he 
said, attempting to climb upon her lap. The 
mother glanced hurriedly at her mending, then 
suggested, "Bring your Mother Goose and sit 



here on the stool beside me." The boy seated 
himself beside her and turned the pages slowly, 
his eyes resting upon the bright patches of color 
just long enough to wrest from each picture its 
meaning. "Bye Baby Bunting" was gently sung 
by the mother, while together they repeated some 
of the other rhymes. "Hot Cross Buns" was the 
boy's achievement alone. Many of the bright- 
colored pictures suggested action stories to the 
boy. "Here's a little girl talking to her doll ! 
This girl is going to the cupboard right here." 

By the time the book had been thoroughly gone 
over, the sun had come out after a rain and the 
mother bundled her boy up for a play on the in- 
closed porch. From where she sat she could 
watch the boy's slow muscular achievements, as 
he struggled to pull an elephant on wheels around 
corners. As the mother observed his movements, 
ideas for new play-materials suited to her child's 
needs occurred to her. She remembered some 
iron wheels in the cellar. Yes, these wheels 
could be fastened on a soap-box by means of iron 
rods which could be purchased at a foundry. The 
boy would then have a street-car to operate. 
Some low boxes would make a fine elevated 
track and would suggest both constructive and 
dramatic play. Playmates and fellow-teachers. 
she said to herself as she folded the clothes away 
and put on her hat and coat for a romp with the 
boy on the porch. "You get in my street-car!" 
said the boy as he made room for her on his 
low coaster — "Ding! dong!" and away they sped 
to Play-Land, where mothers are children and 
children are teachers and all journey onward 
together. 



I. PHYSICAL RECORDS AND PHYSICAL CARE 



We muthers become so used to the peculiarities 
in the structure of our children's bodies during 
infancy — the long trunk, short neck, and small 
leg — that we sometimes fail to notice the gradual 
change toward adult proportions. How queer an 



adult would look built upon these same lines ! 
The human figure would be scarcely recogniz- 
able. I noticed that by the end of the third year 
our boy's trunk was not quite so long in pro- 
portion to his legs. Most authorities place the 



119 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



length of the trunk at three years as 62 per cent, 
of the body as compared with 65 per cent, at 
birth. 

Advantages of a Large Trunk 

The trunk is the center of growth during the 
first three years of life. In the following years 
the legs and arms develop most rapidly. The 
large, heavy trunk in infancy and childhood pro- 
vides plenty of room for the internal organs and 
muscles to undergo a period of pure growth. The 
lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, etc., 
have a big work to do, and they have an advan- 
tage during these early years because of their 
size and area. Your child must not only grow 
more rapidly than you ; he must produce more 
heat and energy because his body has about twice 
the radiating surface that yours has. The in- 
ternal organs are the great machines which re- 
ceive food and air, converting them into body- 
tissue, heat, and energy. The food must be 
nourishing, the air pure, in order to get the best 
results. Your child breathes rapidly. I noticed 
our little boy took from thirty-five to forty breaths 
a minute as compared with eighteen of mine 
taken in the same time. The lungs have an im- 
portant work to perform. The heart, too, although 
small in proportion to the arteries, is busy keep- 
ing up a rapid circulation of the blood. 

Another advantage your child reaps from the 
large trunk is seen in the development of the 
muscular system. The muscles form a large part 
of a child's weight during infancy and childhood. 
I once kept a list of the movements our boy made 
in the course of an hour during the third year. 
A large part of his movements called into play 
the heavy muscles of his trunk, shoulders, and 
legs. They were big, heavy movements involv- 
ing reaching, pulling, and walking. 

I early discovered that loose clothing, and 
shoes providing the toes room for growth, aided 
free movements; while tight shirts or drawers, 
a tight waist or collar-band, restricted movement. 

Changes in Height and Weight 

I noticed, of course, a change in height and 
weight during the year. The average child weighs 
about 25 pounds at two years, and gains about 5 
pounds during the year. The increase in weight 
is less than the preceding year. The tremendous 
growth in weight during these first three years 
is seen when we find the weight has increased 
nearly five-fold. The increase in height is also 
marked: from 2oJ.4 inches at birth to 35 inches 
at three years. The importance of allowing the 



child proper rest, food, and clothing, on which this 
tremendous growth depends, can scarcely be 
overestimated. Children who are undernourished 
and shut out from air and sunshine ma}' regain 
their losses later, but very infrequently do so. 

The Food-Problem as Related to Growth 

It seems to me one of the first preparations for 
motherhood should be a year's course in cooking, 
followed by food-study. It is a well-known fact 
that the child's stomach is not completely adapted 
to adult food until the tenth year. Even with 
some knowledge of food-study, many mothers 
have children whose food-requirements differ so 
greatly from normal that expert advice is needed. 
Until our boy was three years old I called in a 
baby-specialist about every three months and 
followed his plan of diet carefully, preparing all 
the foods myself. I found I could not trust even 
the preparation of cereals to a maid. The wis- 
dom of this was apparent when I saw that two 
departures from the regular diet brought on in- 
digestion and a couple of days of poor health, the 
only days during these three years when the boy 
was not well and strong. 

How children may differ in food-requirements 
is illustrated by the following story related to me 
by a prominent physician. He was called to a 
home where an infant lay white and ill on the 
bed. He found by examination that acute indi- 
gestion was the cause of the illness. Noticing 
a bowl of bread and milk on the table, he left 
instructions for an altered diet. Upon his return 
the next day he found the child dead. Pointing 
to another cup of bread and milk on the table near 
by, he said to the foster-mother, "You are the 
murderer of that child !" The woman broke down 
and protested, saying she had brought up nine 
healthy children on bread and milk. 

It is a well-known fact that growth is the chief 
business of childhood and that carefully chosen 
food, well digested and assimilated, is one of the 
prime necessities of growth. Proper feeding not 
only supplies the child's present requirements, but 
fortifies him against nervous instability in later 
life. Yet, just as food and good digestion are 
necessary to produce good blood, so are health- 
ful interests and occupations an aid in digestion. 
A child who is not pleasantly occupied often 
works himself into a nervous state which affects 
both his appetite and his digestion. 

Sleep as Related to Growth 

During the third year I noticed that our boy 
was just as dependent upon regular hours of 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



121 



undisturbed sleep as in early infancy. Twelve 
hours, from seven at night until seven in the 
morning, he lay in his crib in restful quiet, even 
though he did not sleep the full time. 

In the afternoon our boy took a nap of two 
hours. Most authorities agree that about an hour 
after the hearty noon-dinner is the best time for 
a child's afternoon nap. The blood is at this 
time rich in nutritive material for building up 
brain and the body-tissue. I often stole in to 
watch our boy as he slegt. When his sleep was 
perfect I noticed almost entire absence of move- 
ment. 

If he tossed about I bent down to see if he was 
too warm, or too cold, or I looked to see if the 
circulation of the air in the room was good. 
Children are more, sensitive to dampness and to 
impure air than are adults. Finding the matter 
of heat, cold, and fresh air satisfactory, I next 
turned my thoughts to his night-feeding. Since 
it was fairly regular and uniform in amount and 
variety, there was seldom restlessness because of 
indigestion. Absence of movement during sleep 
means brain rest ; during the hours spent in sleep 
the blood is circulating freely in the brain, 
nourishing it throughout. After one of his usual 
restful nights of sleep our boy would awake sing- 
ing, move actively about, and be full of play. 
Likewise I noticed the adverse efifect of too little 
sleep in a poorly ventilated room. One night we 
were traveling in a Pullman where the room was 
particularly hot and stufTy. In the morning the 
boy was sleepy, did not move about actively while 
I was dressing him. and sat quietly eating his 
breakfast with little or no chatter. 

Personally I learned by experience that to 
awaken a child quickly or to hurry his dressing 
generally brought on a nervous condition attended 
by irritability. Both mornings and afternoons I 
found it best to enter our boy's room quietly, 
draw up the curtain, then busy myself about the 
room until he gradually came to his senses. Some 
physicians claim the brain needs a few minutes 
for recovering its full activity, and for the cir- 
culation to return to normal. 

Regularity in Establishing Physical Habits 

It seems wise to have a regular time in which 
to bathe a child and to cleanse his teeth properly. 
Milk teeth dentition is complete at the third year, 
and the importance of the care of the mouth and 
teeth can not be overestimated. Our boy early 
delighted in having his teeth brushed, because 
after I had cleansed them properly he was allowed 
to finish all by himself. 



The regular time for sitting on the nursery- 
chair may be made pleasurable. I found our boy 
resisted this experience until I planned some defi- 
nite occupation. Sometimes I gave him a tray 
containing a small pitcher of water and his set 
of dishes. He enjoyed pouring the water into 
the different utensils and emptying the water back 
again into the pitcher. Other times I gave him 
crayons and blunt scissors and paper, or picture 
books. 

Exercise in the Open Air 

On warm sunny days as soon as the child has 
breakfasted, and has had his teeth and toilet at- 
tended to, he should play out of doors. He soon 
grows accustomed to this play-period and looks 
forward to it, if he has an abundance of things 
to do. 

During the third year it is still necessary to 
keep an active lookout from the window on all 
of his activities. A busy mother can do her 
kitchen work or mend by the window while watch- 
ing this outdoor play. If a mother wishes to have 
some time_ absolutely free for reading, study- 
ing, marketing, and the like, this seems about the 
best time to leave her child in the care of a reliable 
helper. He needs more mechanical attention 
and less discipline and guidance during this hour 
or two than at any other during the day. He is 
fresh and resourceful in his play. This was the 
time I felt most free to leave my boy in the care 
of a reliable maid. He would run in frequently 
after toys and playthings as the need arose, and 
would call her or me out to see what he was 
playing. 

On cold days it seems best to place a shorter 
outdoor play-period just before the noon-meal. 
On the very coldest days I accompanied our boy 
in his outdoor play. We would run actively about, 
shovel and sweep snow, or go sled-riding. In 
this way I saw that the boy kept actively exercised 
and did not stand or sit in the cold. In the after- 
noon a child should play out of doors again, after 
he has awakened from his nap. It seems a good 
time for even a busy mother to accompany her 
child on walks. I noticed that our boy would 
come in from these walks in high spirits and that 
he showed an improved physical condition. His 
activities in the fresh air had improved his heart 
action and increased the circulation of blood. 

Irritability, Fatigue, and Fidgetiness 

Even a healthy child becomes fidgety when 
hungry and tired, or if he is confined too long 
in poorly ventilated rooms. This is especially 



122 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



true of bright, active children having a nervous 
temperament. Some children are naturally quick 
and nervous. They make a larger number of 
spontaneous movements than slow children and 
become nervously exhausted more quickly. 

I made a good many mistakes in disciplining 
our boy just before the noon-meal before I dis- 
covered my error. He would start a large num- 
ber of plays, get out all of his toys, run about 
aimlessly, and become cross and peevish if left 
to his own devices, or become positively ill- 
tempered if disciplined for his mistakes. Gradu- 
ally I learned to read the signs of irritability and 
fatigue some time after his mid-morning lunch 
and to avoid situations involving irritability and 
discipline. I usually found it best to speak quietly 
and firmly and to provide some interesting occu- 
pation which called into play the large, funda- 
mental muscles, such as scrubbing the floor with 
water and a brush, painting the kitchen furniture 
with water and a large brush, or assisting me in 



some housework. After such play his body would 
relax and he would come to his noon-meal pleas- 
ant and with a good appetite. 

A Daily Time-Table 

Summing up, then, the fundamental needs of a 
two-to-three-year-old child's play, we get a plan 
somewhat like the following: 



6 :3a- 7 :30 


Dressing and breakfast. 


7 :30- 8 :00 


Toilet preparations. 


8:00- 9:00 


or 8 :30 flay in house while mother 




works. 


9:00-10:30 


Outdoor play. 


10:30-10:45 


Lunch. 


10:45-12:30 


Play out of doors or with mother in- 




doors. 


12:30- 1:00 


Dinner. 


1 :00- 2 :00 


Stories, pictures, or play about house. 


2 :0O- 4 :00 


Afternoon nap. 


4 :00- 5 :00 


Outdoor walk. 


5 :0O- 5 :30 


Play with mother; pictures and songs 




and stories. 


5 :30- 6 :30 


Supper and bedtime stories. 


6:30 


Bed. 



n. PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AND INSTRUCTION 



Quiet children often give little trouble, while 
active ones disturb the peace and order of the 
home, until their spontaneous actions are brought 
under control. Yet as soon as this is accom- 
plished the active child very often proves superior 
to the stolid, less active one. 

We mothers learn to fear those quiet or ner- 
vously active periods which accompany fatigue 
or illness. It is natural for a child to move about 
actively when refreshed, finding pleasure in move- 
ment ; and as natural to be annoyed when we 
place restrictions on his spontaneous movements. 
Whenever we see children running about freely, 
hopping, skipping, and jumping, we hear childish 
laughter and see evidences of health and spirits. 
After a child has passed through an illness or 
a period of prolonged fatigue, we notice a lack 
of spontaneous movements, a loss of balance in 
walking, and less vigorous play. 

Like other normal children, our boy was in 
constant motion during his waking hours. While 
I dressed or undressed him he would move about 
a good deal, reaching out for playthings, kicking 
his legs aimlessly about, or bobbing up and down 
in irrepressible motion. I early learned the futil- 
ity of telling him to keep quiet. At the begin- 
ning of the second year I learned, as most moth- 
ers doubtless do, to put on clothes during these 
activities; to cleanse the teeth while he was dab- 
bling in water; and to brush his hair in the midst 



of frolicsome movements. Soon I noticed that 
he was gradually gaining the power to control 
these movements when his thoughts were cen- 
tered upon a pleasing rhyme or story. By the 
end of the third year he would sit or stand quietly 
listening to stories while I dressed or undressed 
him. This indicated a new control of the brain 
centers having to do with movement. 

Spontaneous Movements 

At the beginning of the third year I noticed 
that the movements our boy used most frequently 
were those which involved reaching, pulling, haul- 
ing, lifting,, throwing, crawling, climbing, walking, 
and running. He liked to run rapidly from one 
end of the house to another, shouting gayly as he 
reached the end of his course. Climbing and 
jumping was a daily pastime. He would climb 
from one step to another or jump from low boxes 
as far as he dared, laughing loudly when he 
descended in a sitting position. On cold, snowy 
days he liked to sweep or to shovel snow. In the 
fall he derived great pleasure from sweeping 
leaves into a pile with his tiny broom. On warm 
days he would play in his sand-pile. I noticed 
he would reach far over his sand-pile with a 
spoon and deposit the sand outside. Piling up 
stones and arranging them in rows was another 
activity in which I noticed good bending and 
reaching movements. Pulling toys on wheels 




SELF-HELP 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



123 



over smooth cement walks and throwing stones 
at a target were favorite outdoor pastimes. In- 
doors he would crawl over the floor on all fours, 
push engines along tracks, and carefully steer 
animals on wheels. At the seashore he greatly 
enjoyed throwing stones into the water, improv- 
ing during the Summer in the force and accuracy 
of his throw as well as his aim. Here he enjoyed 
jumping from rocks to the soft sand below, wad- 
ing and splashing in the shallow water, and push- 
ing a board or a boat about in the water. He 
seemed never to tire of these free, active plays 
in sand and water. His muscles toughened and 
strengthened, his breathing improved; I noticed 
a better coordination of muscles and an almost 
perfect poise accompanied by a new bodily grace. 

Nursery Instruction 

At the close of the third year most children 
have accomplished with little training the move- 
ments necessary for gross control of the body. 
We know little about the order of development 
of the muscles of the trunk, arms, and legs, but 
most authorities claim the trunk is the most ad- 
vanced at birth and up to the third year; that 
the arms are in advance of the legs, although 
the legs grow more rapidly during childhood. 
At four we see a shifting of growth from the 
trunk to the legs; while the muscles of the trunk 
and the trunk movements continue to be of prime 
importance, the legs gain considerably. 



Fond parents often imagine that they teach 
their children to walk approximately between 
the first and second years. What the parent 
really accomplishes is to aid the child to exercise 
an inborn tendency to walk. That most of the 
bodily movements so essential in childhood and 
adult life, such movements as sitting, standing, 
walking, running, stooping, jumping up, lying 
down, rolling, climbing, etc., are accomplished 
in childhood by trial and success, through some 
imitation of elders, seem probable to most psy- 
chologists. I had the feeling that there was little 
for me to do at first. Our physician instructed 
me not to try to teach or to encourage our boy 
to walk early, because of a slight tendency to 
bowlegedness, and I knew that I did not have 
it within my power to teach the other gross 
body-movements. 

I soon discovered, however, that I was kept 
very busy in providing the right environment in 
which the boy could exercise his God-given 
capacities — plenty of space and air to move about 
in, an abundance of crude toys to handle, wagons 
and blocks and boards, to lift and manipulate. 
Above all I was kept busy in watching the daily 
growth. We do not need to wait until our chil- 
dren speak to know whether they are playing 
profitably. We learn through watching and read- 
ing how to interpret through the face, gestures, 
movements, and poise of body, whether they are 
building up the necessary movements for genuine 
health and vigor in later childhood. 



III. EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL FOR HOME PLAY 



It seems especially important during the third 
year to keep the child's environment rich in op- 
portunities for free, unrestricted movement. The 
city no longer afifords the child unlimited space 
in which to roam, to climb fences, and to slide 
down cellar doors. Some place must be found 
to give the child space for development and 
growth. Our boy was quick to find substitutes. 

Play Apparatus 

A smooth table-leaf placed against a window- 
seat made an excellent slide for R. Before he 
was two years old he would beg to be lifted upon 
the board and would slide down with evident 
enjoyment. Soon he learned to climb up himself 
and then slide down unassisted. Before he was 
three years old he would slide down a ten-foot 
grassy embankment in our backyard, and would 



fearlessly coast down a still higher stone balus- 
trade on the front of the terrace. Because these 
natural slides are so hard on clothes, we mothers 
soon learn it is best to provide a smooth, hard- 
wood plank, mounted on a low stepladder with 
firm, spreading base. Climbing a strong step- 
ladder was especially enjoyed by our boy during 
the last half of his third year. 

For jumping, I provided boxes of different 
heights. On rainy days we brought those boxes 
into the house for indoor play. All during the 
third year our boy enjoyed walking on curbings 
or along the lowest boards of rail-fences. In the 
city playgrounds, six-inch-wide planks, raised 
three inches from the ground, are often provided. 
Children from two to three years old enjoy walk- 
ing along these planks, and from this practice gain 
poise and balance in walking. 

After the mechanics of walking have been per- 



K.N.— 10 



124 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



fected, the child's energ-y seeks another outlet. 
He delights to pull or push toys on wheels. Coast- 
ing is also enjoyed. Before our boy was two 
and a half years old he could coast down a hill 
a block long, controlling the speed of his wagon 
by occasionally touching his feet to the ground, 
and steering exceptionally well by the use of the 
handle-bars. This achievement came after a 
week's use of a low-wheeled coaster, but was 
probably prepared for by several months' use 
of the kiddie-car. Some mothers question the 
advisability of a kiddie-car at this age. To me 
it seems to be one of the cheapest and most 
valuable toys for locomotion during the third 
year. Sitting on the seat the child exercises the 
muscles of his legs, while at the same time the 
weight of his heavy trunk is largely supported by 
the seat. Such exercise ought to afford a relief 
from the exertion of bearing the trunk about on 
legs small in proportion to their burden. 

Other Toys and Play-Materials 

A list of other play-materials which I found 
especially useful during this year is here given. 
Those mentioned in the first list are especially 
good for developing the large fundamental 
muscles of the trunk, arms, and legs. Those in 
the second list appeal more to the manipulating 
tendency, involving muscles concerned with finer 
muscular adjustments as well as those concerned 
in bending and reaching.* 

1. For swinging and climbing. A rope knotted 

at intervals and suspended from the ceiling 
by a closed iron hook. 

2. For climbing and sliding. A nine-foot maple 

slide, either constructed at home or pur- 
chased ready-made. 

3. A wide-seated chair-swing, suspended by ropes 

from a wooden standard. 



4. For pushing and pulling and coasting. A 

wagon or a box mounted on wheels ; or a 
coaster or pushraobile made as directed in the 
Bovs AND Girls Bookshelf, Vol. IV, pages 
246 and 264. 

5. For building, reaching, and lifting. Soap and 

starch-boxes, also long and short boards for 
building. A set of Schoenhut-Hill blocks 
may be used to supplement this building 
material. 

6. For locomotion. A kiddie-car, doll-carriage, 

and toys on wheels. 

7. For walking-experimentation. A walking board 

or joist. 

8. For throwing and kicking. A No. J4 Spalding 

football, rubber balls, and a large box with 
circular hole into which beanbags can be 
thrown. 

9. For pounding and sawing. A dull toy saw, a 

tiny hammer, large nails, and soft boards into 
which nails can be pounded. 

10. For digging. A shovel, rake, and broom. 



1. For manipulation. A nest of blocks, also a 

collection of paper boxes of cylindrical 
shape, and tin cans and boxes of varying 
size and shape. 

2. A collection of stones, pebbles, shells, buttons, 

ntits, etc. 

3. A Noah's ark set. 

4. Embroidery hoops for rolling and twirling. 

5. One-inch-size wooden beads and shoestrings 

for stringing. To be purchased at a kinder- 
garten supply-house. 

6. Some bath-room tiles in colors. 

7. Spoons, dishes, a toy stove, and a laundry set. 

8. Dolls and a few clothes, also a few pieces of 

simple furniture. 



IV. RECORDS OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 



A MOTHER once said to me : "I feel sure my 
child is developing well physically. I can weigh 
and measure his growth. But I don't know how 
to look for signs of mental development." I re- 
plied that although we can not observe the brain, 
we can see it working in our children's busy 
chatter and in the number and variety of move- 
ments they make. A feeble-minded child does not 
have the poise of body and the power to make con- 
trolled movements that a normal child possesses. 

* See Dr. McKeever's directions for making these play- 
things, page 149. 



Someone has said that all mental action is 
expressed in movement. The significance of at 
least some movements children make is easily in- 
terpreted by mothers. When our boy was in his 
third year I noticed he was very active, both 
physically and mentally. I felt this was a sure 
sign of healthy mental growth. He gained con- 
siderably in poise of body and in muscular de- 
velopment during the two months we spent at 
the seashore in the Summer. This was to be 
expected, since growth in Summer invariably 
exceeds growth in the Winter, if conditions are 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



125 



favorable, and the brain grows with the body, 
responding favorably to good physical conditions. 
During the Summer I noticed our boy developed 
a more vigorous walk, a free, open stride, broken 
frequently by a forward leap. I observed also 
that he jumped actively about on the rocks, threw 
stones into the water with a strong arm-movement 
and a sure aim; and poured water steadily from 
his little pail into the sand-wells he so liked to 
dig. 

The brain has a tremendous amount of work to 
do before the end of the third year. By this time 
the greater part of its growth must be completed, 
for at four years in normal childhood nine-tenths 
of the brain-growth has been accomplished. Be- 
cause of this, the importance of physical health 
and of freedom from strain can scarcely be over- 
estimated. Not only does the brain have to grow ; 
it has to perfect new functions or uses. The 
child must see, hear, taste, smell, and touch ade- 
quately, in order to become used to the objects 
and people in the world about him. The develop- 
ment of the senses and of the muscles is most 
important during the third year. One writer has 
compared the mature parts of the brain to islands. 
Physical cables must be laid to connect these 
islands before any real thinking can be done. 
The brain-cells must bud and branch out like the 
leaves of a tree. This means a period of pure 
growth followed by a period of exercise for the 
parts matured. To neglect your child's sensory 
or motor-development when it needs the most 
attention in order to train his intellect along lines 
which are easier to train later, is poor economy. 
Your child's thinking depends upon laying the 
cables firm and strong for a good sensory and 
motor development. 

The Danger of Strain 

Anything that brings a strain upon our children 
at this tender age, when their minds and bodies 
are undergoing the wear and tear of rapid growth, 
is bound to lead to a one-sided development. It 
is not wise for us mothers to be too ambitious 
and stimulate our children constantly or force 
them to think along lines of our own choosing. 
It is, of course, possible to teach a child to read 
a little to impart some knowledge about a good 
many school-subjects during his third yeai". So 
far as this teaching grows out of our children's 
natural interest in connection with play about the 
home, there is little danger. In my own ex- 
perience I found no desire on the part of our 
boy during his third year to learn any of the 
things fond parents sometimes recount as childish 
achievements. Yet I discovered boundless oppor- 



tunities to suggest new things in connection with 
plays, with blocks, animals, engines, sand, water, 
etc., and to develop new ideas about favorite 
books, rhymes, poems, and music. 

Isn't it safer and more wholesome to teach 
fundamental habits in connection with the simple, 
homely life and with toys, than to strain after an 
intellectual knowledge the child's brain is not 
fitted to grasp? We mothers can more safely 
dress up a child in a man's clothing and expect 
him to be physically comfortable than force him 
to participate in uitellectual experiences beyond 
his years and grow strong in so doing. Emotional 
strain, too, is especially to be avoided. This is 
brought on by injudicious disciplining, by keep- 
ing a child up late at night, or by submitting him 
constantly to stimulating sights and sounds in the 
street or at public entertainments. 

Development in Attention 

Beginning with the end of the second year I 
noticed that our boy's power of attention to pic- 
tures, people, or toys had developed considerably. 
He would listen to Mother Goose songs or stories 
for a half hour, with an occasional break in at- 
tention. By the end of the third year he would 
look at pictures for perhaps an hour, provided I 
sat near to interpret the pictures and supply oc- 
casionally rhymes and stories. At two-and-a-half 
years he would play in water and sand or with an 
engrossing toy, such as a wagon or engine, for 
an hour at a time. When he was three years old, 
play with a toy engine engrossed most of his 
attention. It was, however, varied play; he would 
push his iron engine actively about, or make a 
long train of cars, build bridges for the train to 
pass under, and switch it back and forth on lines 
on the carpet. Before the third year his atten- 
tion had flitted rapidly from one play or toy to 
another; so much so that a house guest once 
suggested I ought to teach him concentration. I 
did not follow the advice, for I felt the brain had 
to grow at its own pace and that concentration 
could not be imposed from without. 

Memory 

One thing of interest to me during the third 
year was our boy's growth in power to recall 
objects, impressions, and scenes, and to use the 
knowledge at some later time. Very often I would 
see him dramatize an event that had occurred 
some time before. He showed ability to observe, 
with some degree of accuracy, the things, people, 
and events about him. One day I saw him go 
to the kitchen drawer for a hammer and insert 
the forked end between the boards of a crate. 



126 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Again, I noticed he applied the kitchen can-opener, 
point down, on the circular groove of a can. 

At two and a half years, after a ten weeks' 
absence from home, he remembered where the 
various objects in the house were kept. At the 
close of the third year I returned from an or- 
chestral concert and told him I had heard a band 
play. He replied, "I heard a band in Iowa." Upon 
questioning him I discovered that he remembered 
where he had seen the band and who took him 
there. So far as my knowledge goes, this fact 
was remembered three months without being re- 
called before. At the beginning of the year I 
had thought it interesting that the sight of new 
kid gloves reminded him of taking lunch down- 
town with me two weeks earlier. Now I saw 
the ability to store up ideas several months and 
to use them again. 

Imagination 

Imagination also grows apace. It was through 
watching our boy's dramatic plays that I dis- 
covered the common, everyday stuff with which 
imagination works. We sometimes remark upon 
children's vivid imaginations, forgetful of the fact 
that their minds are only working in normal ways 
with the materials they pick up in everyday life. 
A mother has a wonderful opportunity to see this, 
for she is constantly with her child and knows 
what his mental pictures are. One day when we 
were out walking our boy exclaimed, "See the 
moon !" at the same time pointing to a crescent- 
shaped piece of metal in the cement sidewalk. I 
recalled that he had several times seen the moon 
as a bright crescent in the sky above. So what 
seemed a far-fetched comparison to me was but 
the normal exercise of imagination to him. 

Reason and Judgment 

Adults often say a child has no power to reason 
or to form judgments. We sometimes think this 
because of the incongruous ideas children get. 
During the influenza epidemic I was out walk- 
ing with our boy when he attempted to em- 
brace a strange child. Quickly I pulled him away 
saying, "Oh, no; the baby has a cold." The boy 
replied, "He not cold; he warm!" And then I 
realized that while we were both reasoning and 
forming judgments, my judgments were abstract 
ones, and the boy's dealt with facts as he saw 
them through the senses. 

Perhaps the following illustration shows still 
better what an everyday fact judgment is. One 
day when our boy was two and a half years old 
he wished to look out of a window just beyond 



his reach. I placed a book under his feet. After 
standing a few minutes to get a good view out 
of the window, he turned to me and said, "I need 
a big book. Muz." Had he not considered facts 
of sense in such a way that he had arrived at a 
conclusion in which the significance of big and 
little books had a direct bearing on the problem 
of e.xtending his height to get a good view from 
the window? 

We hear sometimes that a child possesses little 
foresight of consequences and makes "snap judg- 
ments." Here again we are likely to misjudge 
the child's reasoning ability by refusing to recog- 
nize judgments related to sense-objects and things. 
The following example will perhaps illustrate my 
meaning: One time when we were living at the 
seashore I was tucking the boy in bed when he 
exclaimed, "Write, Muz ! Sew !" I realized that 
his mind had conceived the pleasant state of going 
to sleep with me near. His busy brain had 
devised a means to accomplish his end. 

This mental act partakes almost of the nature 
of strategy in adult life, as does the following: 
I had often forbidden R. to walk out on the pier 
at the shore, exclaiming, "Captain D. says you 
must not go out there ; it is dangerous for little 
boys." One day as we were approaching the 
shore R. exclaimed, "Captain D. says to go out 
on the pier, Muz !" Realizing some authority 
higher than mine concerning the possibility of 
walking on the pier, he had applied this knowledge 
to further his own personal ends. 

The Question of Method in Mental 
Development 

We have spoken of the danger of becoming 
too ambitious in training a child along lines of 
our own choosing. This does not mean that we 
mothers should leave our children unguided in 
their play. We must learn the natural method 
of education. To do this we must start with our 
children as we find them, as Nature leaves them 
in our midst. Mothers of large families often 
say, "Every one of my children is different from 
the others ! What I do for one is out of place with 
another." Even a mother of one child recognizes 
this if she supervises the play of her own child 
with other children. 

I learned most about our boy during the third 
year from direct observation of his actions when 
alone with me and when playing with other chil- 
dren. I soon discovered how his nature differed 
from that of other children of his age, and 
learned some of the ways in which he needed the 
most help by imitation and suggestion. 




LEARNING BY EXPERIMENTATION 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



127 



V. METHODS OF CHILDISH EXPERIMENT 



I EARLY learned to start with the boy's interests. 
For example, if I wished to interpret to him the 
life of birds, ducks, or chickens, I told stories con- 
nected with something he had known about them in 
actual experience : how a dog barked to get into 
the house; how the duck hunted water to swim in; 
how the birds flew from the tree to the ground in 
search of food, etc. I started always with some- 
thing the boy was interested in; I finished some- 
times with a dog or bird or duck story that had 
no immediate relation to what he knew, yet which 
was of vital human interest. Often a poem was 
useful in putting some of these experiences into a 
form which was to be a permanent possession. 
For example, one morning the boy looked out of 
the window on a white world. He noticed the 
falling snow and remarked that the wind was 
blowing it about. He asked to catch a snowflake, 
so we went outdoors and caught some on our 
hands and coats and felt them on our faces. When 
we came in we stood by the window and the boy 
told me everything the snow had covered. After 
that he was delighted to hear the little poem, 
"Snow, snow, everywhere," and would correct me 
if I forgot to mention "roofs or window panes." 

Starting with something the child himself con- 
tributes is an absolute necessity to the mother or 
teacher who would assist children in mental de- 
velopment. And now comes the question of 
mctltod. 

Shall the mother leave the child to experimenta- 
tion and let him profit by the trial-and-error 
method? 

Shall she use imitation and suggestion a good 
deal? 

Shall she aim to make her child independent 
enough to form "free ideas," by which we mean 
applying past experiences in new and novel 
ways ? 

It seems to me most of us mothers learn quite 
unconsciously to use all three methods. In my 
own experience I obtained best results when play- 
ing directly with our boy. rather than in sitting 
aloof and making suggestions. Any mother has 
a few odd minutes each day in which she can 



play with her child. Our boy would urge "Come, 
play with me on the floor !" Since he had two 
engines I would run mine about, doing pretty 
nearly what he did. After he tired of running 
the engine under a bridge, I would make my 
engine do something different — run around a 
circular track or over an elevated bridge. Often 
I would say, "Let's make our engines do what 
those engines did the other day." Then we would 
switch them back and forth, unload the cars, coal 
up the engines, etc. R. once said, "The whistle 
is going to blov:' ! Hear the bell ring !" Then with 
a quick change of thought and no feeling of in- 
consistency, he said, "The colored porter says 
for all to get off and they (meaning people) are 
going to eat now on the train." The colored 
porter and eating on a train were experiences 
three months off, while the whistle and bell of an 
engine were heard frequently on our daily walks. 
In another minute he himself would be the en- 
gine and steam off with a "Ding, dong," and a 
"Chu, chu." The play described above involves 
all three methods. 

We sometimes fail to notice the important re- 
sults of this developing method. First it involves 
a recognition on the mother's part that her child 
contributes something of importance. His natural 
powers of observation and his interests are taken 
into account. The mother selects something he 
is interested in and lets him take his first mental 
steps alone. He explores, observes, and tells her 
his results either through actions or words. She 
goes on his journeys of learning with him and 
adds a little either by actions or words. She 
takes him a little farther than he could go alone 
in his wanderings. She supplies things he hungers 
and thirsts to get but can not quite reach unaided. 
The gratitude a child shows when a mother meets 
his needs in this way is quite wonderful to behold. 
His whole being expands with delight and 
pleasure as a new world opens up before him, 
and he feels united, melted almost into one being 
with the person who shares these experiences 
with him. Surely these moments are among the 
priceless possessions of parents and teachers. 



uS 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



VI. EDUCATION THROUGH WALKS* 



From the time our ^boy was able to toddle alone 
he delighted in being taken on walks, if only to 
the corner and back. When he was two years 
old he had learned the different roads leading to 
points of interest — to a neighbor's hennery, to the 
street-car tracks, and to a hill down which he 
sometimes coasted on his kiddie-car. I found 
it best to walk slowly, to stop with him when he 
wished to pick flowers, gather stones, or watch 
birds and passing vehicles. In the winter months 
we waded through snow, slid on icy walks, made 
snowballs and ran about, chasing each other. 
Sometimes, comine home at dusk, we would 



notice the street lights and R. would point to the 
moon overhead. In summer we climbed the grassy 
slopes of a hill nearby, picked dandelions and 
daisies and watched birds. Occasionally we 
would go to a large park, where we saw engines, 
airplanes, fish, rabbits, etc. Upon arriving home 
R. would relate to us what he had seen and I 
would make up simple fact-stories concerning 
the objects that had interested him — how the 
rabbits jumped about in the grass, how the little 
squirrels ran up and down the trees, how people 
rode on trains, and how fish swam through the 
water.f 



VII. PICTURES, STORIES, AND POEMS 



During the third year, pictures are stories in 
themselves. Gradually words describing them 
arise spontaneously. Our boy enjoyed especially 
the colored pictures in "The Real Mother Goose," 
illustrated so beautifully by Blanche Fisher 
Wright; he was also fond of "The Most Popular 
Mother Goose Songs," illustrated by Mabel B. 
Hill. As I turned the pages he would exclaim, 
"Baby get bathed!" "See the man with a cane!" 
He had a way, too, of pointing to pictures, silently 
begging for stories describing them; and would 
make disapproving gestures if I turned the pages 
without giving simple fact-stories concerning the 

* Read again Mrs. Coleman's description of her walks with 
Margaret in the Course for the second year. 

t I he following outlines, taken by permission from Helen 
Y. Campbell's ''Complete Motherhood," may be useful to the 
mother in preparing these fact-stories. Be sure, however, 
that such stories do not precede the child's own observations 
and questions. If they do, they will be likely to deaden 
rather than quicken interest. 

.\fter telling a story, get the child to retell it to you, and 
then follow it up by further observation. For instance, after 
telling about bread, visit a bakery with the child, and then a 
pastry -shop. After seeing honey on the table, visit a hive. 
After finding a horseshoe, go to a blacksmith's shop. 

A Piece of Bread. — Plowing the fields, sowing the seed, 
watching the yellow fields, reaping the grain, threshing the 
wheat-grains away from the straw, winnowing the husks or 
chaff away from the grain, the miller and the windmill, 
crushing the grains in the mill, and sifting the white flour 
away from the bran, the baker and his oven, the baker's 
shop, and the pastry-cook's, 

A Horseshoe. — The horse, his hoof and mane, the black- 
!imilh and his forge, the horse's harness, his food, and his 
house, his intelligence and uses, his breaking-in, his paces, 
wild horses, lassoing, the cart-horse, the cab-horse, the race 
horse, the circus-horse and his feats, the long-legged colts, 
the farm pony, the shaggy Shetland pony. 

A Piece of Coal, or the Fire Burning in the Grate. — Tell 
the child the ori(j:in of coal from the plants of the marshy, 
buried forests of long ago. How these plants, which we 
often see pictures of on the coal, had no pretty flowers, and 
were chiefly giant mosses and ferns, etc., though the sun 



pictures he pointed to. I described the actions 
of people or animals and related simple facts 
about objects in a few telling words, thus giving 
him verbal word-pictures to form a nucleus for 
a good vocabulary. Colored pictures consisting 
of bright splashes of red, green, blue, and yellow 
made the strongest appeal. I noticed R. did not 
recognize some of the finely drawn figures in 
black and white, although he liked big poster- 
effects in black and white. 

I had often read that children never tired of 
Mother Goose rhymes and songs. Our boy would 
plainly show his dislike if they were too often 

shone on them. How these plants worked to store up some- 
thing, with the help of the sunbeams playing over them, and 
kept it to be useful to the world long after they were dead. 
Tell the child about the coal-mines underground, the miner, 
his lamp, his pick and shovel; how the coal burns in the 
nursery grate, and yields the gas to light the room, to cook 
our food, and to drive our engines. 

A Spoonful of Honey. — The bees' nest or hive; the Queen 
Bee and the fat lazy drones, her guard of honor. The 
active little working bees, who build the comb with wax from 
their "wax pockets," clean the hive, and mend it with gum 
from the plants, then cool it by fanning with their wings. 
Why they fly forth to the flowers and return laden with 
honey in their "honey bags," and pollen in the "pollen 
baskets" on their little hind-legs; why they have stings to 
secure them from interference with their important work and 
enable them to drive away enemies and robbers from the 
hive. The nurse-bees, who hollow out the waxy cell-cradles 
for the bee-babies, and feed them with honey and pollen- 
dust, and then use up the pollen left over to make the dark 
"bee bread" and store it for the Winter. The babies (laid by 
the Queen as little white eggs in the cell-cradles) who turn 
into grubs, and when they have grown fat on the nice food 
prepared by the nurses, put on silk robes and go to sleep, 
while the nurses cover their cradles with wax. and when 
they wake, eat a hole In their cradles and crawl out with a 
striped brown velvet dress, and wings like the grown-up 
bees; the swarming away to form a new colony of the 
<_)iieen Bee and her drones, and many of the workers, on a 
bright day. when a princess is born, whom the nurses feed on 
a special sweet jelly; the use of bees to the flowers in 
helping them to make their seeds. 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



129 



repeated. Some songs he had especially enjoyed 
at first, finally became distasteful, although later 
his liking seemed partly to return. 

It seemed to me that from the time R. was two 
and a half years old, I told stories on every 
occasion. When dressing and undressing him, 
while preparing his food, and at odd times during 
the day, would come the request "Tell me about 
this!" I showed him pictures selected to meet 
his interests (a large number of which I gathered 
from old magazines and pasted into scrapbooks). 
As soon as R. became thoroughly familiar with 
the pictures and their meaning, he would sit alone, 
turning the pages and repeating the things he 
knew about each picture. 



I hunted up rhymes as well as stories related 
to a child's interests. A few of Christina Ros- 
setti"s poems, one or two of Stevenson's, and a 
large number of rhymes and songs from such 
kindergarten song-books as the following, I sung 
or recited frequently to him : 

PouLssoN, Emilie. Finger Plays. Lothrop, Lee & 

Shepard Co., Boston. 
Riley. Alice Cushing. and Gaynor, Jessie L. Songs 

of the Child's World, Nos. 1 and 2. The John 

Church Co., Cincinnati, O. 
Bentley, Alys E. The Song Primer. A. S. Barnes 

& Co., New York. 
Walker. Gertrude E., and Jenks, Harriet S. Songs 

and Games for Little Ones. Oliver Ditson Co., 

Boston. 



VIII. SPEECH AND LANGUAGE 



My own records of our boy's language-develop- 
ment show that he acquired a large part of his 
vocabulary during the third year through imitat- 
ing our own speech. At two years he had acquired 
the habit of saying simple words and phrases 
after us just as soon as he heard them. "See 
that?" "Baby ride," are examples of what I 
mean. I realized the importance of speaking 
slowly and plainly and of being careful in the 
selection of words. I did not greatly simplify 
my speech, however. I used words and sentences 
which would have a permanent place in his 
vocabulary. R. had a habit of pointing to an 
object when he wanted it. By paying no atten- 
tion to these inaudible requests I forced him to 
ask for it verbally. 

At twenty-seven months R. could make fairly 
good, sentences, such as "Daddy, please put bath- 



tub away." At that age he invariably accom- 
panied his actions with words, "Go downstairs 
with me !" "Sweep floor !" "Wash face !" being 
samples of what I mean. Later he did not so 
describe his actions. 

During the last half of the third year language 
was acquired very rapidly. On walks I found much 
to talk about with R., and his vocabulary grew 
apace through the natural widening of his ex- 
periences. 

Stories and pictures gave him a permanent 
vocabulary. The stories he wished repeated again 
and again, and the words became permanent in his 
memory. I encouraged him to relate to me after- 
wards what he had seen upon walks and to retell 
familiar stories. In relating these stories, the 
words would be almost exactly what I had used 
in telling stories to him.* 



IX. RHYTHM 



I FOUND that rhythmic movements developed 
quite naturally and spontaneously in unexpected 
ways. WHien running, R. would give an occa- 
sional leaping movement which fell quite naturally 
into schottish rhythm. Once I saw him experi- 



ment in walking by taking little mincing steps 
about the house. I sat down at the piano and 
played "Tiptoe" music, but found the music inter- 
fered with the rhythm of his movements. It was 
not until our boy was in his fourth year that 



* A recent authority, tabulating the common mistakes of 
children, lists only about twenty-five as being very frequent. 
This is an encouraging fact. It suggests that if we isolate 
these few for special treatment, conceutrating our attention 
upon them, we may eliminate them one by one. In doing 
this it is important to name the incorrect expression as 
seldom as possible, lest the very effort at correction only 
serve to fi.x the wrong form. I would suggest that you take 
up these imperfect expressions one by one and offer some 
small reward each time the right phrase is used. 

haven't no 

seen, had saw 

ain't 

done, for did 

got, haven't got 

I and my brother 

kin, jist, git, etc. 



ain't, for haven't 

Fred and me 

is, for are 

them, for those 

learn, for teach 

can, for may 

my mother she 

that there 

it was me 

went, for gone 

come, for came 

drawed, throwed, etc. 

lay for lie 

all two 

readin', writin*, singin*, 

et, for ate 

set, for sit 



130 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



music enhanced his pleasure in free rhythmic 
movement. Walking sideways rhythmically was 
acquired in the third year through playing ring- 
around-the-rosy with me. Galloping movements, 
with one foot leading, occurred during running 
plays. After I noticed this, we would take hold 



of hands and gallop together when out on walks. 
Two books possessing a variety of rhythmic activ- 
ities suited to a child's development a little later 
than the third year are: Volume H of "Music 
for the Child's World," by Hofer; "Folk Dances 
and Games," by Crawford. 



X. DRAMATIC PLAYS 



SoMEONi: has said that a child builds up his 
personality, under certain limitations, by copying 
the actions, temper, and emotions of those who 
are his companions. We mothers often see our- 
dispositions as well as our actions reflected in the 
children playing about us. If rude and uncultured 
servants are employed in the home, it is easy to 
detect their habits and actions in the play of the 
children. I once observed a child who had been 
for a week continuously associated with a servant. 
This child had taken on certain rude actions 
copied from the servant. He indulged in such 
expressions as "Get out of my way!" "I'm in a 
hurry !" "Don't bother me !" when but a week 
earlier, "Excuse me !" and "Please let me pass !" 
had been commonplace remarks. 

What the Child Imitates 

During the third year we see children imitating 
almost any action or event which appeals to their 
interest. The most familiar experiences are not 
always the ones first acted out, although this 
is likely to be the case if the commonplace ex- 
periences appeal to the active life the child leads. 
Before our boy entered upon his third year I saw 
him struggle to envelop a baby doll in a diaper. 
He then placed the doll on a couch and covered 
it up, sticking safety pins about in the bedclothes 
with an idea of somehow fastening the doll in. 
He often made a trip to the bathroom to secure 
a washcloth with which to wash his doll. This 
kind of play seemed simple, but it involved a defi- 
nite plan of action and was a step in advance of 
such simple dramatic plays as scrubbing the floor 
with a brush he happened to find, or dusting the 
furniture when someone else was dusting. 

When a two-year-old child plays at dusting, 
sweeping, or cleaning, he is learning something 
about each act he imitates. If we observe care- 
lessly, the play may seem on about the same level 
for several months, but if we look more care- 
fully, we will see how the acts change. For 
example, as our boy continued the play of putting 
his doll to bed he observed more closely the pnt- 
ting-to-hcd act and learned to adjust the bed- 
clothes and pins more nearly as I did. 



The Capacity for Make-Believe or Illusion 

One day when R. was twenty-six months old 
he placed a paper plate on his head, a market- 
basket on his arm, and with a cane in his hand 
strutted about the house, chanting in a tuneless 
fashion at the top of his voice. He was arrayed 
to look like me when I start to market, with the 
addition of a cane, which symbolized Daddy's 
festive walking occasions. In some way he 
achieved a sense of importance by the addition 
of hat, cane, and basket. He did not deceive 
himself into believing that he was really going 
to market or out for a walk. 

This sense of illusion or pretense seems to give 
children a great deal of pleasure even as early 
as the third year. About this time R. derived 
considerable pleasure in eating imaginary meals 
from a spoon and empty dish, knowing quite well 
he was not partaking of food, but enjoying the 
pretense, nevertheless. This enjoyment of pre- 
tense extends so far as to make even disagree- 
able acts pleasurable. One of R.'s favorite plays 
during this third year was pretending to go to 
bed, while really going to bed was rather a matter 
to be endured. When being put to bed he would 
sometimes say, "But I don't want to sleep so 
much," but playing bedtime was a different mat- 
ter. It was a self-planned activity, hence it could 
be terminated at will. 

The Development of Dramatic Plays 

During the last part of the third year children 
dramatize pretty nearly everything that strikes 
their fancy. Shaving like father, running like 
horses, hopping like frogs, flying like birds, 
cravi'ling to represent mice, cats, etc., barking to 
represent dogs, are part and parcel of the day's 
play. When using blocks or toys, these inanimate 
objects are made to perform events seen or heard 
of in stories. Ideas suggested through pictures 
are also incorporated in dramatic play. One day 
while R. was playing I saw a train run under a 
bridge and a sailor boy stand on top of the bridge, 
looking down upon the swift-moving train. Pretty 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



131 



soon a man appeared on top of one of the cars. 
I remembered just where R. had seen these 
things. But soon the play became unlike his own 
actual observation. A motor truck passed over 
the bridge with a lady doll on the seat. Suddenly 
a story was remembered. "I want a cat to jump 
on her lap," I heard R. exclaim. A wooden block 
became a cat and jumped into the lady's lap. Then 
a dog (another block) appeared and chased the 
cat up a tree. And so several jumbled-up facts 
from different stories were remembered and in- 
corporated into a play which had started as a 
dramatization of a real experience. 

Just after the close of the third year I noticed 
that the plots of dramatic plays became more 
true. At that time Santa Claus was the en- 
grossing subject. The plot changed from day to 
day, yet nevef exceeded the bounds of stories 
and pictures connected with Santa Claus. Some- 
times Santa "propelled" himself over the floor 
in a large pan. Again, he strutted about with a 
pack over his back and insisted upon my closing 
ray eyes while he deposited toys at my feet. At 
another time a chair became the tiny reindeer, 
and, perched upon an improvised seat in a clothes- 
basket, R. slapped his reins and speeded on his 
journey o'er the snow. 

One day I attempted to use the chair which 
had a short time before played the part of "the 
tiny reindeer." R. resisted with a vigorous pro- 
test, "Oh, don't ! It's my reindeer !" This Santa 
Claus play almost dominated the boy's person- 
ality for several months. "I'm Santa Claus!" 



he would exclaim before he had even partaken 
of breakfast, and all during the day, off and 
on, the Santa personality dominated his actions. 
When people asked him his name he invariably 
and quite seriously replied, with no thought of 
being amused, "Santa Claus !" 

The Educational Significance of Dramatic 

Plays 
Considering the facts brought out in the dis- 
cussion of dramatic plays, it is a commonplace 
to attempt to point out the educational signifi- 
cance of such plays. They are the very stuff of 
life itself. We can control the kind of play only 
by controlling the conditions of life. If our lives 
with our children abound in rich experiences 
which set good copies, we need have no fear of 
what the child will dramatize. Within certain 
limits parents can enrich the significance of dra- 
matic games b}' playing with their children, being 
careful, of course, not to usurp leadership or to 
suggest a content to the play which is quite 
foreign to the child's genuine interpretation. Dur- 
ing the third year, also, a parent can greatly en- 
hance the content of dramatic plays by descrip- 
tive songs and stories. For this purpose I found 
facf-stories relating to animals and activities in 
which the boy was interested more appropriate 
during the third year than stories in books. Dur- 
ing the fourth year I could use longer stories, 
but during the third year only Mother Goose 
rhymes and the simple fact-rhymes found in 
kindergarten song-books. 



XI. RECORDS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 



Every child inherits naturally a desire for com- 
panionship with children his own age, as well as 
with grown-ups. Both are necessary. Compan- 
ionship with children gives one kind of social 
training; companionship with adults, another. 

In observing the dift'erence in the results when 
our boy played constantly with me, and when he 
enjoyed the companionship of children his own 
age, I stumbled upon some interesting facts. First, 
I noticed that he became elated and that his per- 
sonality seemed expanded when he was playing 
with children his own age. There was not per- 
haps the swift and sure flow of sympathy and 
ready speech that I noticed when with me. But 
his personality became different ; he developed 
new attitudes and new ways of doing things. It 
seemed quite evident that he was changing in 
ways I was powerless to make him change be- 
cause of the fact that I was adult. One day I 



heard him beg a little neighbor to come over and 
play in his sand-pile. His beseeching tones made 
no impression upon the little lady, who busied her- 
self in her garden without any sign of interest 
except to answer "No!" R. looked heartbroken, 
and running to me for sympathy, cried out, 
"Mother, she won't come over !" As he hid his 
face against mine I realized that what he craved 
and needed was another little personality feeling 
as he felt, acting as he acted, and even at times 
behaving in quite new and unexpected ways. And 
I, his mother, although I had spent years in com- 
panionship with children, could not hope fully 
to supply this need. 

Limitations in Adult Companionship 

It was at one time possible for me to observe 
daily, for a considerable period, the behavior of 
an only child who had been alone a great deal 



ir^2 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



with her mother. Because of the refinement of 
her mother's personality, this child appeared su- 
perior and more attractive than children usually 
do. Yet, placed with children her own age, she 
appeared at a disadvantage. She did not know 
how to defend herself against their aggressions, 
nor was she trained to cooperate with them in 
their play. She had not developed the social 
weapons of defense and offense necessary in 
group play. 

Children Learn How to Act by the Way 
their Acts are Received 

Our boy learned, early in his third year, that 
little friends went home if he pushed them about 
or monopolized the toys. It was in play with other 
children that he found it did not pay to hit or 
strike. The early appearance of this tendency had 
troubled me not a little. I tried holding his hands 
after such acts, taking him away from the group, 
and other forms of discipline. Finally I in- 
structed a child two years older to hit him back. 
I shall never forget the look on his face when 
this particular playmate did hit back. And I 
saw at once the effectiveness of this swift, just, 
sudden judgment. Not long afterwards when I 
was dressing R. he struck at me playfully with 
considerable force. I devised a hand-tagging 
game which interested for awhile. Still the im- 
pulse persisted, returning again and again. Re- 
membering the effect of the child's return blow 
I paused and said quietly, "It hurts; I'll show you 
how it feels !" And I administered one swift 
blow, smiling and saying, "Do you like it?" He 
looked surprised and put both arms about my 
neck, dropping his head on my shoulder. Some- 
how I had assisted him to see the social result 
of this purely playful yet socially harmful act. 
Even during the third year he would start to 
strike, so strong was the natural tendency in this 
particular child, then hold his hand suspended in 
the air as reason told him to stop. 

We mothers are often too protective in our 
attitude toward our children. Because we be- 
lieve them to be immature we shield them from 
the consequences of their mistakes and often 
make it impossible for them to learn by experi- 
ence. Play with other children is invaluable in 
showing up these prime necessities of behavior. 

I once saw a fond parent playing "Pussy-wants- 
a-corner" with his little daughter and three or 



four other children. He schemed to give his little 
daughter unfair advantages, and thus helped her 
to change places successfully. If limited to his 
companionship, what chance had this little girl to 
learn through play how to be fair, and to win 
honestly the points of the game? 

Adult Interference in Children's Play 

During the third year I found that my super- 
vision was very necessary if play with other 
children was to prove profitable. Not that I 
needed to interfere constantly, but I found it best 
to be near enough to see that sudden conflicts in 
the possession of the toys did not lead to throw- 
ing toys and blocks about promiscuously. A child 
of this age is too young to be told to count ten 
before he acts, as we adults sometimes do. In 
childhood many instincts pull for dift'erent kinds 
of behavior. A child usually acts in the direction 
toward which the strongest and quickest instinct 
pulls him. Often we mothers can attract a child's 
attention away from the object of his wrath and 
thus give him a chance to get himself under 
control before he wreaks vengeance on property 
and playmates. This does not mean that we 
should protect our children from the effects of 
their misdemeanors. Nothing could be more 
harmful than to prevent them from learning by 
experience. Where neither property nor life is 
threatened it seems safest to let our children act 
naturally, and learn by their little mistakes how 
to act differently. Sometimes a warning is suffi- 
cient. 

When I saw our boy monopolizing a treas- 
ured toy I sometimes suggested that his little friend 
would go home if he kept the toy to himself, 
then left him free to decide what to do. And 
he soon learned that it paid to be generous and to 
cooperate in play. When I played with him I de- 
manded my turn and fair play. R. soon learned 
that I expected this kind of treatment and gave it. 
He would often offer me a treasured iron engine 
as an inducement to play, keeping a less highly 
prized wooden engine for his own use. 

In conclusion, it was the result of my own ob- 
servations that if I wished our boy to have a 
happy, all-around development, he must play with 
other children. I therefore decided to accept the 
inevitable drawbacks seen in certain undesirable 
habits copied from other children, as well as to 
accept the advantages such play afforded. 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



133 



XII. TRAINING IN OBEDIENCE 



Obedience begins with the first touch of a hu- 
man hand, the first sound of a human voice. 
Wlien you place your baby in his first nursing 
position and hold him there ; when you darken 
the room for his scheduled naps ; when you 
change and bathe him, you are giving him his 
first lessons in obedience to law and order. When 
your baby responds to your cooing, your cuddling, 
and fondling, you are deepening the roots of 
sympathy and understanding out of which obedi- 
ence will grow and flower. 

Training for Obedience 

It is a much-discussed question among mothers 
how important obedience is among the social 
habits their children must acquire during the 
early years of life. Obedience means submission 
to the will of another. Most of us in adult life 
do not practice occupations or engage in work 
which requires an instant, unqualified obedience 
to the commands of a superior. Most of us prefer 
work in which we are called upon to judge for 
ourselves and to bear the responsibilities of our 
choices. Yet we are ever subject to a series of 
authoritative demands in the home, city, state, 
and nation ; we are subject, also, to the authorita- 
tive voice of conscience. It is evident a child is in 
a different situation as regards obedience. Until 
he arrives at an age when he has gained the ex- 
perience to choose the right action, he can not 
be held responsible for his choices ; indeed, he 
needs to be saved from himself — from pursuing 
the whims and caprices that appeal for the mo- 
ment. He seems happiest and best in childhood if 
given the moral support of a firm hand and heart. 
His life runs smoothest if he is conscious of no 
choice about essentials. Yet he must be gradu- 
ally trained to make choices and bear the conse- 
quences. 

Even in the third year I began to say to our 
boy, "You may play out on the front sidewalk 
with your sled or you may go for a walk." And 
once the choice was made, I expected him to abide 
by the consequences. It required some experience 
and judgment on his part to decide whether one 
course or the other afforded the most satisfaction 
and enjoyment. Yet I did not say to him, "You 
may or may not eat your spinach for dinner," or 
"You may or may not take your daily nap." The 
spinach and nap were looked upon as a matter 
of course ; without a thought or question they 



were a part of his life. And so with other neces- 
sary requirements : the child should be led to con- 
form without question, not realizing that he is 
obeying the will of another. Habit avoids much 
friction in childhood. 

The Social Significance of Obeying 

It is an open question whether a child who 
obeys unquestioningly his father's and mother's 
commands is going to develop into a youth who 
responds well to the dictates of a social order or 
who acquires a deep and lasting sense of obedi- 
ence to the warnings of conscience. This is a 
question about which careful thinkers are rightly 
skeptical. In my own experience I have seen 
children who were disobedient at home show a 
real sense of responsibility to the demands of 
good teachers and employees. Somehow, despite 
the defects of early training, they responded to 
authority. Unless we are willing to grant a trans- 
fer of the habit of obedience from a trained re- 
sponse to a parent's command to the response to 
the demands of society in adult life, we must 
content ourselves with requiring the kind of 
obedience necessary for the preservation and 
happiness of the family group. Good habits in 
eating, sleeping, and playing -with toys and other 
children will eliminate the necessity of many 
commands for obedience, yet the child must come 
when he is called and he must respond to a com- 
mand of his parents, in order to avoid loss of 
property and danger to life itself. 

Requiring Unnecessary Obedience 

Perhaps we may simplify the question of how 
much obedience to require by agreeing to de- 
mand less, but to insist upon obedience once 
asked for. This course requires us to think twice 
before asking our children to do explicitly as 
we request. I once saw a child engaged in 
happy play jump up suddenly at the sound of his 
mother's voice requesting him to put away his 
toys at once. The mother seemed to have no 
particular reason for interrupting her child's 
play other than that it was approaching lunch 
_ time. A little forethought on her part would 
have led this mother to break more gently the 
happy bond of thought that was carrying her 
child's life into really creative channels. 

I learned the relation of obedience to creative 
play by an equally unfortunate mistake. Coming 



134 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



upstairs one day with my mind bent on other 
things I forgot to obsecve that R. was busy play- 
ing with his engine. Taking him by the hand 
I said, "Time for bed!" Immediately I had vio- 
lent opposition — "I don't want to go to bed!" 
R. protested, stiffening his limbs and growing red 
in the face — "I want to play with my engine!" 
Seeing my mistake, I said, "Here comes the en- 
gine to get coaled up at the station !" His limbs 
relaxed and his face took on a happy look. "Here 
comes the engine !" he repeated, wheeling it after 
us. We played a minute or two, then I began to 
undress him, keeping his mind on the engine, and 
before he realized it he was ready for bed, and 
the engine had been coaled up and placed on a 
chair beside the bed. Some mothers may say, 
"But I haven't time for all this — I am too busy!" 
To this I can only reply that I haven't time for 
the other kind of procedure, which involves a 
wear and tear of nerves and an ultimate loss of 
time. 

Coming When Called 

We will all grant, I am sure, that it is abso- 
lutely necessary for a child to come when his 
mother or father calls him. Yet to bring about 
this habit with all children is not an easy thing. 
A child of little initiative in play is more quickly 
trained in this than one who is constantly finding 
himself in the midst of interesting and absorbing 



activities. With our boy I did not find it easy to 
establish this habit. There were always so many 
interesting things which he wished to do. When 
he was in his second year I found it best to use 
pain — a spatting of the little hands. In the third 
year, when he failed to comply with my request 
to come, I used other kinds of punishment, grow- 
ing out of the situation. Feeling that the habit of 
obedience was necessary, I did not coax by saying, 
"Come to get ready for a walk!" or "Come here. 
Mother has something nice for you !" But if he 
failed to come at once to lunch, I withheld des- 
sert, or if it was to take a walk I had called him, 
I left him home while I went out. And the third 
year was well on before I could count absolutely 
on obedience to this kind of pressure. I think this 
slow development in this particular child was due 
to the fact that by nature he particularly resented 
interference, and that experience was necessary 
to establish the fact that obedience was to be 
demanded and required: also that obedience paid. 
Other children I have known are so responsive 
that they obey unquestioningly almost from the 
first. I observed another case of a child who 
resisted interference more than is usual. His 
mother, feeling she must demand immediate 
obedience, rewarded him by giving him bits of 
candy when he came if called. This child would 
not come if others called him, for he had no re- 
ward by so doing. 



XIII. TRAINING IN SYMPATHY 



It is easy to believe that a little child is sympa- 
thetic; he appears to feel with us, to laugh when 
we laugh, and to cry when we cry. A good many 
of these acts are the result of imitation. I re- 
member when our boy was two and a half years 
old he would shout gleefully when a crowd of 
adults laughed or clapped their hands, and he 
would cry almost instantly if I puckered up my 
face and uttered a distressing sound. This was 
a mere unthinking response. Real sympathy 
occurs only when a child feels as zve feel: his 
mmd must recognize our feelings as akin to some- 
thing he has felt in his own experience. Real 
sympathy, then, depends upon a growth in experi- 
ence, in which clear thinking upon the results 
of experience plays a large part. 

We can hardly expect a child of three to 
sympathize with us when we are ill unless he has 
quite recently gone through some privations be- 
cause of illness ; nor can we hope for his sympa- 
thy when we are nervous or unstrung. Yet if 
we bump our heads or burn our fingers his mind 



instantly grasps our mental state. I have known 
instances where a child cried in sympathy with 
his mother on such occasions. Our boy cried out 
in terror when a visitor at our home pretended 
to throw Chine, his beloved doll, downstairs. 
With this growth in the power to imagine his 
doll passing through an experience he had him- 
self found harmful, came a power of projecting 
his thoughts and feelings into other people's acts. 
I once heard him cry out that Chine was hungry 
and needed oatmeal. And after the growth of 
this type of understanding I never saw him handle 
his dolls or toys roughly. Often if I dropped a 
rubber doll he would exclaim solicitously, "You 
hurt my sailor man !" I once knew a small child 
who had such power of imagination that he 
rebelled when his mother picked pansies. He 
went quickly toward her and began to strike her 
by way of protest, saying, "You are hurting 
my pansies !" But this, of course, is not a normal 
exercise of imagination and sympathy. 

Children differ so much in their natural 




FRIEXDS.— GOING TO BED.— SHARING.— TRAINIiXG IN TABLE-MANN 



ERS 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY; 



135 



capacity to project their minds into the experi- 
ences of another that training does not always 
reap a rich harvest. Then, too, a child reacts to 
example. In rare cases it seems to be an un- 
fortunate coincidence that mother and child may 
be tuned to a different pitch and that sympathy 
between them is not perfectly natural and spon- 
taneous. 

Usually, however, there is a generous give 



and take sympathy between the cliild and his 
parents. Nature apparently intends this to be so. 
In the rare and happy environment of a con- 
genial home the child learns easily and naturally 
the give and take of a sympathetic relationship. 
By example and training he develops kind and 
gentle ways, unselfishness, and other qualities 
which form the atmosphere in which sympathetic 
behavior thrives best. 



XIV. TRAINING IN AFFECTIONS 



It is a well-known fact that a mother's out- 
pouring of affection upon her child is a part of 
her motherly nature. Nature planned that she 
should bestow her affections spontaneously upon 
her offspring. It is not so readily recognized, 
however, that in the provisions of Nature the 
mother must earn her child's love by sympathetic, 
tactful, and wise training. Our children, unless 
trained to render love and service to the family, 
are as likely to bestow it in a hit-or-miss fashion. 
This seems to me to be one reason why we 
mothers should think twice before surrendering 
our right to be our children's chief companions 
in childhood. And it is in the first daily routine 
of baby-tending that habits of dependence and 
sympathetic behavior are first established. In 
giving physical care to our children we lay the 
cables for spiritual as well as physical depend- 
ence. 

The third year brings a wealth of affection to 
the loving, sympathetic mother. This affection is 
expressed not only in her child's loving caresses 
and endearing words, but in his desire to be con- 
stantly in her presence. My own little boy of 
three years seldom left the room when I was 
there. And I soon learned to watch particularly 



happy moods and to exact some act of service. 
Not that I needed the service rendered, but that 
I wished to establish a happy bond of helpfulness 
between us. "Will you help Mother set the 
table ?" or "Run your engines around the other 
way so that I may work here !" "Mother wishes 
a handkerchief from upstairs." Doing things 
for and with me became just a part of the give 
and take between us. 

And I soon learned to make ever greater de- 
mands. I found it possible to appeal to both 
his reason and affection when it was necessary 
to leave him. He would naturally not wish me 
to leave. Sometimes he would say, "But I don't 
wish you to go to-day!" To my explanation 

"Mother would like to get some from the 

store," or "Mother would like to go to a party 
to-day," he would generally answer, "All right, I 
want you to go !" and wave cheerfully as I passed 
out of sight. I tried always to render some 
happy service in return, without of course promis- 
ing it or mentioning it. On my return we would 
have a particularly happy playtime on the floor 
with the toys, or I would get out some unexpected 
treasure in books or pictures. And so affection 
grew with the little demands made upon it. 



XV. TRAINING IN UNSELFISHNESS 



It is perhaps a wise provision of Nature that a 
child should think first in terms of what he can 
secure for himself. On the whole it is of advan- 
tage to him that he secure for himself the most 
he can, the best toys, biggest apples, and pleasant- 
est occupations. If the love of serving others 
were natural to children, they would never secure 
the personal development which is necessary in 
order that they render really efficient service in 
adult life. So instead of making a foolish and use- 
less appeal to unselfish motives in childhood, it 
seems best to help the child to form necessary 
habits of unselfishness, without at first paying 



much attention to the motive back of it. Let him 
run errands for Mother because he has fun in so 
doing, and get Father's slippers because he wins 
praise and romps for the performance of such 
favors. He soon learns that the performance of 
useful acts for others brings surprises and favors 
in return. Thus habits of service become es- 
tablished happily without much thought. 

However, as the child's mind expands and 
grows, he may be led to a more rational kind 
of thoughtfulness toward others. Our little boy 
of three was particularly fond of lady-fingers, 
yet when told that taking an extra one would de- 



136 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



prive Daddy of one of his, he no longer asked for 
it. One day he refused a coveted candy because 
he thought it belonged to "Daddy." He could 
only be persuaded to eat it when I assured him 
Daddy did not wish it that day. 

A good many habits of selfishness about shar- 
ing toys and goodies seem to me to result from 
a lack of experience in sharing and sharing alike. 
Selfishness with toys is perhaps natural at first. 
It seems best that each child should feel his toys 
are his own, and that the desire to share them 



should grow out of the understanding and knowl- 
edge that by so doing he gains companionship. 

The mutual advantages of sharing must be 
brought to his mind and attention. Life is to a 
large extent made up of service rendered in pay- 
ment for benefits received, and we must not expect 
a little child to blossom out prematurely into a 
knowledge that it is more blessed to give than to 
receive. This ideal of mutual service and mutual 
benefit in sharing toys seems to me a safe and sane 
road lo follow in the early days of childhood. 



XVL TRAINING IN ORDERLINESS 



A NUMBER of failures in getting toys put away 
without friction led me to sit down and ponder 
upon the times I had happy results and the times 
I did not. Usually the times when friction 
occurred were those in which I was in a hurry 
and failed to work upon the imagination by sug- 
gesting some pleasant reward, such as "Put your 
toys away quickly and help Mother beat up this 
cake," or "As soon as your toys are put away 
you may have lunch" — naming the good things 
to be set upon the table, or again, "Mother has 
time for a story as soon as you have put your 
toj's away." From failures to get results in form- 
ing prompt habits of orderliness I learned to use 
more of imagination in my efforts. I made use 
of a mental propulsion from within the child in- 
stead of physical propulsion from without. We 
can not always expect our little ones to rejoice 
in accomplishing each routine task, but we may 
so kindle their minds with interesting ideas that 



the performance of these tasks goes on in a happy 
frame of mind. 

In regard to toys, different homes present dif- 
ferent problems. Some children have a nursery, 
others a corner in a room, and unhappily other 
children have no place which they may call their 
own. Because I liked to observe and to guide our 
boy's play, I encouraged him to play wherever I 
happened to be. In fact, he needed no encourage- 
ment in this habit. The engine would steam 
upstairs after me and descend again as I came 
down. I tried to steel my mind against a- natural 
distaste to having the floor strewn with toys, for 
I discovered one toy enhanced the play with an- 
other. Yet we never sat down to lunch or went 
to bed before the toys were safely put away in 
their right places. There were shelves for horses, 
blocks, engines, and other toys, and drawers for 
smaller objects. Low shelves were reserved for 
books, paints, crayons, and pencils. 



XVII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE 



We have come to believe that the so-called con- 
science is not a gift of the spirit bestowed upon 
us without effort or labor, but is the result of 
training and environment. We must work to 
attain a high sense of duty, unselfishness, and the 
power to cooperate with others for great ends. 
A little child starts out neither moral nor immoral. 
He builds up his ideas of right and wrong by 
acting and seeing the result of his acts. At first 
he acts mainly from impulse and from habit. He 
grabs food if hungry, sleeps when tired, and cries 
when things go wrong. And our ways of receiv- 
ing his actions make pain and pleasure follow 
his natural 'behavior. If we allow a child to eat 
at any time, and to cry in order that he may get 
what he wants, he will form a habit of so doing, 
and an attitude which regards these actions as de- 



sirable. If, on the other hand, we interest him 
in other things, and thus inhibit the desire to eat 
until the regular time to eat has arrived, we bring 
habit to his assistance. We inhibit this natural 
impulse. He soon learns it is better to wait. 

Sometimes during the third year our little boy 
would want to eat at irregular times. I found it 
easy to assist him to put aside this desire, which 
would lead to disastrous consequences, by sug- 
gesting that we look at pictures, or paint, play 
horse, etc. ; that is, I made it pleasant for him to 
wait. Had I allowed him to fret, or look long- 
ingly at food, I should have made it disagreeable 
for him to wait and should have hindered the 
possibility of his doing the right thing. In the 
example of striking, discussed in connection with 
companionship, I allowed pain to follow the im- 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



^i7 



pulse to strike, thus gradually leading to the con- 
trol of the act. 

Make It Pay to Do Right 

If we analyze our own conduct, or turn to his- 
tory to study the development of conscience, we 
see that in the main people perform good acts 
because it pays to be good. Even the altruist per- 
forms good deeds because he is happy in so doing: 
that is, he is paid for being good by attaining a 
sense of having done well. We can hardly ex- 
pect a child to start out with high motives and 
unselfish acts. We can call his attention, how- 
ever, to some acts as good and others as bad by 
seeing that pleasure follows the performance of 
good acts and pain bad ones. It rests with us as 
parents to see that he acquires this discrimination. 
But, even before he learns to discriminate, he 
must be led to build up habits of good action. 
The sooner he learns to eat at proper times 
and to sleep the required amount, the less it is 
necessary to inflict pain for wrong acts connected 
with eating and sleeping. I have known parents 
who fed a child the instant he became fretful or 
unoccupied, and let remaining up at night be- 
come so pleasant that in later life the habit of 
regularity in regard to eating and sleeping was 
most difficult to acquire. 

The Place of Rewards 

By rewarding good actions we do not mean 
giving a child a bigger cookie when he divides 
his with us, or calling him "Mother's good boy" 
if he quite unthinkingly comes to us when we 
call him. Rather should we make him experience 
real happiness when he enjoys his cookie with 
us, and feel the reward of obedience by partici- 
pating in our happy greeting and silent approval 
of his act. I once knew a mother of uncommonly 
high motives who habitually appealed to high 
motives in her child, motives that did not appeal 
to him, and she expected him to respond. For 
example, she once said to her two-and-a-half-year 
boy : "Come, go to bed because sleep will make 
you strong!" And the boy quite naturally re- 
plied, "I don't want to be strong! I want to play 
horse !" How much better it would have been to 
appeal to the lower motive, which he quite under- 
stood, and to have said quite finally, "Now it's 
bedtime ! We'll drive the horse upstairs, feed 



him, put him in the stable," etc. In the latter case 
going to bed was rewarded by a pre-play period. 
The child gained something he desired as well as 
learned the necessity of going to bed when the 
right time came. 

Doing Disagreeable Things 

One of the ways in which we parents have a 
great responsibility in training our children is in 
teaching them to do disagreeable things. We all 
know the type of man or woman who puts off 
doing disagreeable things by doing pleasant things 
first. No occupation or profession in life is with- 
out its drudgery, or should be, in the best state 
of society. In our present state of society we 
find organized labor striving to adjust this very 
thing by securing for each worker a proper 
amount of leisure to offset drudgery. We must 
begin very early in childhood to help our children 
to form habits of doing disagreeable things in 
order to earn pleasant things. 

In my own experience with children I have 
found it quite possible to use anticipation of 
pleasant things to come after a bit of drudgery is 
performed to lighten the drudgery: to put the 
emphasis on the pleasure to come rather than 
on the disagreeable task to be performed. In 
helping teachers to organize playroom activities 
I suggested that toys be carefully put away in 
order to make room for all to play some favorite 
game, or to listen to stories. The busy hum of 
voices and the eager tramping of feet showed 
plainly that the little minds were focused on the 
happy event to come. In such groups of chil- 
dren one can easily pick out those who have been 
led to avoid disagreeable tasks at home. Such 
children often stand about, letting other children 
do all the tasks, and have to be deprived of the 
pleasure they did not earn in order to see the 
necessity of each doing a part of the drudgery. 

Summary 

The development of conscience, then, consists 
in rewarding good deeds and in punishing bad 
deeds. Good and bad should not be judged from 
the adult standpoint, but from the child's own 
experience. Good habits must be ingrained in the 
child's nature before he is required to choose and 
decide in view of his reward or punishment. 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 



THIRD YEAR (from the Second to the Third Birthday) 

These references suggest helpful explanatory passages in "The Child Welfare Manual" 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 

Movements: running, riding and swinging; in- 
creased activity in manipulating toys and 
tools. 

Muscular control better developed. 

Physical resistance to disease good. 

Weight: 27 pounds, increasing to an average of 
iZ pounds [L 148]. 

Height: 31 inches, increasing to 35 inches. 

Respiration, about 25. 

Pulse, 110, down to 96. 

Dentition: 20 teeth; complete by 2;1. years 
[I. 209]. 



PHYSICAL SUGGESTIONS 

[I. 251-25S] 

Sleep: 12 hours, and 4 to 2 hours' rest. 

Food, as second year [I. 251, 252]. 

Exercise, as second year, with larger range for 
running; train to undress self [I. 253-255]. 

Arrange for sand-pile play if possible [II. 233- 
240]. 



138 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

Instincts: fears of an imaginative sort appear 
[I. 308, 334] ; curiosity is more active and be- 
gins to take form of questions [II. '21, 22, 96]; 
play is more resourceful and becomes imagi- 
native by middle of year [I. 52; II. 14]. 

Emotions, more stable [II. 135-140]. 

Memory, more particular, but not yet continuous; 
voluntary recollection begins. 

Understanding: of the simpler properties of mat- 
ter and the way things act, more definite. 
Continued interest in handling things to find 
out about them. 

Speech: larger vocabulary and more accura.te use 
of words. While individuals diflfer, most chil- 
dren use short sentences freely by end of 
year. 

Mental activities: imagination now enables child 
to imitate not only literal acts of mother but 
also her purposes; actions therefore more 
purposeful and planned; motives become 
more individual and personal; reasoning still 
direct, though crude. Interest in stories, par- 
ticularly of experiences with the bodily 
senses, that involve one's self, and include 
some little fancy [II. 122]. 

Likes to express self through crudest "drawings." 



MENTAL SUGGESTIONS 

[II. 243-255] 

Further drill in recollection and attention [II. 108- 
113]. 

Exercises in sentence forming, and care in protec- 
tion from slang, dialects, and vulgarity [II. 
83-86]. 

Teach: simplest constructive use of blocks, spools, 
etc.; use of pencil; use of dull-pointed scis- 
sors [II. 233-236]. 

Provide playthings for exercising the imagina- 
tion, such as blocks to be houses, dolls to be 
babies, etc. Encourage self-directed play of 
this sort [II. 17]. 

Answer questions plainly when child is attentive 
[II. 243, 244]. 

Tell fairv stories to develop imagination, but no 
gruesome ones [II. 23, 251-253, 270-275]. Use 

illustrated fairy-tale books. 

Train the senses: variety of food to encourage lik- 
ings of taste; odors of flowers for smell; more 
homely toys and playthings for touch; piano, 
phonograph, and singing for hearing; bright 
colors to enjoy [II. 229-230, 240]. 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 

THIRD YEAR (from the Second to the Third Birthday) 



SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Distincter idea of self, with more self-assertion 
and real individuality of his own [II. 164]. 

Increased sympathy with others through imagina- 
tive sharing of their experiences, toward end 
of year. Also new antipathies. 

Increased affection and desire for approbation, 

with first attempts to set will against an- 
other's. 

In general, the imitative and socializing stage 

comes to fruition. 

Development of social feelings, of courtesy, in- 
terest in others, kindness, lovingness, gentle- 
ness, slowly increases. 



SOCIAL SUGGESTIONS 

Continue expressions of affection and approba- 
tion, especially because of the increased sen- 
sitiveness. 

Handle obstinacy calmly [II. 222]. 

Cultivate an interest in the child's imaginative 
plav and suggest methods as you play with 
the" child [II. 17]. 

Do not encourage too many playmates. 

Protect the child's sense of property rights. 

Encourage spirit of helpfulness in easy tasks. 

Teach table manners and special courtesies [I. 99- 
103]. 



MORAL DEVELOPMENT 

Conscience depends on approval of others, espe- 
cially of mother. 

Contrariness toward end of year — result of new 
self-consciousness. 

Self-direction increases. 

Obedience now decided by own choice and mo- 
tive. 

Courage grows out of conquered fears. 

Self-control develops through obedience and re- 
straint. 

Play and fancy not distinguished from fact and 
truth. 

Loyalty develops through simple responsibilities. 

Orderliness develops through care of toys, per- 
sonal clothing, etc. 



MORAL SUGGESTIONS 

[II. 172-184] 

Continue last year's methods. 

Emphasize obedience, for sake of safety. Make 
commands few, clear, complete. 

Encourage self-direction in work, play, and kind- 
nesses [II. 164-167]. 

Teach table manners and courteous expressions, 
by word, by example, by playful exercises. 

Do not collide unnecessarily with the child, but 
foil contrariness, by almost military and un- 
questioning submission. 



K.N— n 



139 



A CHART OF CHILD STUDY AND CHILD TRAINING 
FOR THE THIRD YEAR 



BASED ON THE FOREGOING ARTICLES BY MRS. ALICE CORBIN SIES 



THE CHILD'S RESPONSES 

He is developing his trunk and larger muscles. 



His movements of running, jumping, climbing, 
and handling things are incessant and under 
better control. 



He has greater and longer power of attention. 



He shows occasional power of voluntary recall 
of past experiences. 

From his meager store of facts he begins to 
draw proper conclusions. 



Along the lines of his interests he makes vari- 
ous experiments, with varying success. 



When he goes to walk he makes many but frag- 
mentary observations denoting interest. 

Every picture and nearly every experience sug- 
gests to him that it has its story. 



His vocabulary, through imitation and questions, 
grows by leaps and bounds. 



He gets the power of make-believe in his play. 



He craves playmates of his own age, and is sur- 
prised that they do not always understand 
him and agree with him. 

He shows self-assertion and an occasional ten- 
dency to disobey. 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 

If we are careful of his food, exercise, 'and sleep, 
we shall conserve his energy for this period 
of rapid and trying growth. 

We do not need to teach his muscles how to act, 
but to provide playthings for them to act 
upon. These should be of two kinds: those 
for body-movements and those for handling. 

It is more important now that he have interest- 
ing things to attend to than that we insist 
upon persistence and concentration. 

Reminiscent conversation should be helpful, and 
suggestive questioning. 

Let us not ridicule his reasonings, but try to re- 
member how little he has by which to form 
his judgments, and give him more material. 

We may sometimes let him try-and-fail or try- 
and-succeed: we may sometimes suggest or 
give models to imitate; we may sometimes 
encourage him to move out independently. 
Any one of these methods alone would be 
unsatisfactory. 

Simple fact-stories explaining what he has seen 
will be useful. 

TuDi all facts into stories; make stories to fit 
pictures; gather picture-scrapbooks of the 
familiar things he sees. 

Ask him to tell and retell frequently what he 
knows. Correct incorrect e.xpressions on tlie 
spot. 

If we give rich experiences, then dramatic play 
will be rich in meaning, beauty, and variety. 

A little rough-and-tumble now will tend to cure 
him of being self-centered. 



L'nnecessary obedience is not to be demanded. 
The criterion of wise obedience is the wel- 
fare and happiness of all concerned. For 
his own safety, however, he must at all costs 
be drilled to come when he is called. 



140 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



THE CHILD'S RESPONSES 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 



He shows curious alternations of sympatliy and He can not sympathize broadly until he has had 
callousness. broader experiences. By imitation he can at 

least learn kindly ways. 

His affection shows itself in his desire to be in We may deepen this by frequently asking for 
the presence of those he loves. little acts of service. 

He wants his own things, and does not willingly He must be taught to think more clearly about 
share them. what is his fair share and about the advan- 

tages of generous companionship. 



He dislikes to put his things away. 



Try imaginative and playful methods and help 
him, remembering that often he is tired. 



His sense of right and wrong is irregular and At first we shall have to appeal to the lower 
imperfect. motives of advantage and of tlie approval 

of those he loves. 



WHAT AN AVERAGE CHILD MAY BE ABLE TO DO 
BY THE END OF THIS YEAR 

ARRANGED LARGELY FROM DATA BY MRS. ELSIE LaVERNE HILL 



1. Walk between the rungs and along the rail of 
a ladder laid along the ground. 

2. Do a lot of jumping. 

3. Dig in the sand vigorously. 

4. Use hammer and nails with increasing ac- 
curacy. 

5. Use large pencil for sweeping "drawings" and 
"letters." 

6. Listen to simplest incidents to be related in 
story-form. 



7. Enjoy jingles and the many catchy little verses 
among the Mother Goose rhymes, and try to repeat 
them. 

8. Learn to open bed, hang up clothes, and pick 
up playthings. 

9. March to beat of piano-music. 

10. Learn to undress self. 

11. Run little errands for Mother. 

12. Feed self without spilling. 

13. Use short sentences freely. 



"Trying to get a boy to use his toothbrush is a serious, 
amusing, and interesting subject," says Gerald Stanley Lee. 
"All one has to do is to get enough of the boy in." 



OPINIONS OF EDUCATORS ON THE VALUE OF 

FAIRY-STORIES AND OTHER IMAGINATIVE 

LITERATURE TO CHILDREN 

"A fairy-story is not a lie, nor is it the truth. It is greater 
than the truth; it is the ideal. The child looks from these 
stories into the great truths that he will be called upon to 
battle for in future years. The hard-hearted man is often a 
man who has not had his imagination developed in child- 
hood, and consequently has not the power to put himself in 
another's place." — Walter S. Athearn. 

"The idea is to enrich the child's imagination, stock its 
mind with allusions, perform its ideas of right and wrong, 
and these are essentials." — G. Stanley Hall. 

'"There are the old fairy-tales. Such stories as these 

should not merely be read once to the child, but should 

make a part of his equipment and a background for his 
life."' — Eleanore R. Price. 

"The use of fairy-stories is invaluable. Imaginative liter- 
ature is the best training that a child's abstract sense can 
receive to fit it for understanding the religious idea." 

— Isabel Margcsson. 

"Stories from epic fairy-tales best supply what a child 
needs." — Herbart. 

"Children who are talked to by Mother Goose and fairy- 
story tellers learn to talk more quickly than others, and have 
more vivacity of mind." — Elizabeth P. Peabody. 

"We must include in our repertory some well-selected 
myths, fairy-stories which are pure and spiritual in tone, and 
a fable now and then." — Nora A. Smith. 

"When I have something important to tell a person I ad- 
dress him in a language he will understand. Little people 
are living in the wonder age, when the language surest of 
appeal to their hearts is the language of fancy." 

— Clara Whitehall Hunt. 

"Fairy-tales appeal to the children through yet another 
characteristic. This is the easy, natural relation existing be- 
tween animals and human beings. Folk tales may well foster 
whatever there is of truth in the feeling." 

— John Harrington Cox. 



WHAT TO DO THE THIRD YEAR 




PLAYS AND GAMES FOR THE THIRD YEAR 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



When a child has reached his second birthday- 
he begins to invent little plays of his own. These 
are very simple ; generally they are imitations of 
the activities of people and things around him. 

Sense-Plays 

More difficult contrasts should be presented: 
big. medium-sized, little ; heavy, light ; high, low. 

The toy shelf should contain, besides the balls, 
dolls, etc., several two-inch and four-inch cubes. 
It will require quite a little dexterity on the 
part of a two-year-old child to pile these on top 
of one another. A few larger cubes or wooden 
boxes, about eight inches each way, will lend 
themselves to many different uses in play and are 
a good size to strengthen the arm clasp. 

Special toys are really not needed. Tearing 
paper into small bits is excellent, and these should 
be picked up and put into a pocketbook for 
"money," or into a bag for "buttons." A narrow- 
necked bottle and puffed rice make an educative 
toy: the eye and hand control and the persever- 
ance needed to put the flakes into the bottle are 
very valuable. The child should not be helped 
or interrupted in such play. Boxes with stones, 
toothpicks, or shells make good playthings. Nests 
of boxes give contrasts and education in size. A 
paper bag with potatoes or beans will amuse — and 
educate — for hours. Opening and shutting doors 
and drawers, sticking twigs in a cane-seat chair, 
playing in sand — all such simple pastimes help in 
hand development and, consequently, mind de- 
velopment. Sand especially gives excellent play 
exercise. 

Movement Plays 

The child likes to test his power of walking 
on the edges of curbstones or going in and out 



between the palings of a fence. He wants to 
throw the hall and then run after it and grasp it. 
He wants to walk and run, climb and jump, most 
of his waking hours. He wants to roll on floor or 
grass. The best education for the child is the 
opportunity to be as active as he wishes, except 
in the case of a nervous child who needs quieting 
rather than stimulation. 

The child imitates many of the actions he sees 
around him ; he drums with his hands, waves a 
hand for a flag, bends his body up and down, and 
twirls around in his efforts to dance. He runs 
like a horse or dog, and waves his arms when he 
sees a flying bird. All these plays, although only 
crudely interpretative, help the child to observe, 
to develop his desire to imitate, and to gain con- 
trol over his body. 

A little rhyme for bending the head and closing 
the eyes is the following: 

"Niddy. noddy, niddy, noddy. 
Winking, blinking in the light, 

Niddy, noddy, niddy, noddy, 
Close your eyes and say good-night." 

Ball Plays 

Quicker activity, more imagination, and inter- 
pretation through language mark the ball games of 
this period. A child now wishes to roll the ball 
and then run after it. He likes to have another 
person roll the ball so that he may race with it. 

Give names to the large and small balls. Let 
him feel that they are his playfellows. Hide them 
for him to find. Play "come to visit" with them. 
Once in a while dress them in handkerchiefs or 
towels, and let him play they are dolls. Let him 
play that the one on a string is a little dog which 



143 



144 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



he is leading. In the ball plays, say or sing some 
simple stanza such as, for rolling game : 

ROLLING THE BALL* 

"Roll over, come back here, 

So merry and free, 
My playfellow dear, 

Who shares in my glee." 

PUSSIES AND PONIES t 

For soft and hard balls, say or sing: 

"This is little kitty, 

Running round and round, 

She has cushions on her feet, 

And never makes a sound. 

"This is little pony, 

Running round and round. 
He has hoofs upon his feet, 
And stamps upon the ground." 

Dramatic Play 

About this time the activities of others begin 
to attract the baby. The occupations of the house- 
hold are familiar and interesting. He will play 
sweeping, dusting, scrubbing. He will imitate 
father walking with a cane or reading the paper. 
"Brother" will be played by writing an imaginary 
lesson. If the dog and cow are well known, their 
cries will be imitated. As this is the period 
when control grows over rapid locomotion, dra- 
matic expression will naturally turn in this chan- 
nel after the action has become easy. The child 



will imitate the trotting of the horse and the chug 
of the railroad train, the jumping of other chil- 
dren, etc. 

Action-Plays 

Plays with the fingers or other parts of the body 
are really dramatic plays, for children of this age. 

Here is a story for mothers to use when she is 
washing a chubby face : 

"Round the house, try the keyhole, east 
door, west door (ears), windows closed (eyes), 
front door closed (mouth), flower beds blooming 
(cheeks), footpaths all swept up (neck)." 

Great care should be taken of the first teeth. 
A little story about the white horses or the fol- 
lowing jingle will tide over the time when ob- 
jections are raised: 

"See the white sheep all in the pink clover ; 
Stand still little lambkins, all in a row; 
Scrub them and wash them over and over; 
Now trot away, lambkins, white as the snow." 

BABY'S HOUSE 

"Knock at the door of a little white house (fore- 
head), — 

I wonder who lives inside, — 
Peep in here at a window bright (eyes). 

Now don't you try to hide ! 
Lift the latch with a cautious hand (nose) 

Or somebody'll turn the key. 
Then walk in through the doors ajar (mouth), 

But don't you stay to tea ; 
For the little white dogs that live inside 

Might gobble you up, you see." 



THE BABY YARD 



MRS. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER 



A wKLi.-KNOWN doctor has suggested that every 
person, once in his life, should be prevented by 
force from drinking a drop of water for twenty- 
four hours, in order that thereafter he might 
appreciate what free access to water means for 
health and comfort. On the same principle it 
might be a good thing if every country mother 
should be obliged to spend a month with her 



* Set to inusic in "Merry Songs and Gaines," by Clara B. 
Hubbard. Balmer & Weber Music House Company, St. 
Louis. 

t Set to music in "Songs for Little Children." Part 11, by 
Eleanor Smith. Milton Bradley Company, Springfield. 



young children in the city, so that she might 
thereafter appreciate what splendid opportunities 
lie all about her country home. For the poorest, 
busiest country mother can easily have conditions 
and materials for which many a highly trained 
kindergarten teacher sighs in vain. 

Perhaps the greatest of her privileges is the 
wonderful resource' of having all outdoors, but 
this is a privilege which the mother of young 
children is apt to neglect. She herself must be 
in the kitchen or near it during much of the day, 
and she must have her babies where they are 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



145 



within sight. It often follows that country little 
folks spend almost as much time hanging drearily 
around a kitchen, where they are in the way and 
where the air is not good, as do the city cousins. 
What else can the busy mother do? 

Little Folks Need Pens More Than 
Chicks Do 

She can apply to her children the lore she 
has learned about little chicks. Her men-folk, 
hardened to fencing long stretches of field and 
meadow, would laugh at the ease with which a 
little square of yard outside the kitchen door can 
be inclosed. 

Fencing which is not good enough for chickens 
will keep the little children safe from automobile- 
haunted roads, from wandering cows, from run- 
ning out of sight of their mother's eyes. And 
there is no farm in the country where there is not 
enough discarded fence material of one kind or 
another lying about to inclose a spot, say twenty 
feet square, though it might be larger to ad- 
vantage. It is better if there is a tree to furnish 
some shade for hot days, but if there is none near 
enough to the house, a piece of old paper roofing, 
or a section of old corrugated iron roofing, or 
some old boards with odds and ends of shingles 
put over them, will furnish shade in a corner of 
the baby yard for hot days, as well as protection 
from the rain during summer showers. 

The Necessity of Constant Activity 

Now with her little ones foot free and yet in 
security, out from under her feet in the kitchen, 
and yet close at hand within sight and hearing 
as she steps about her daily work, the country 
mother can take counsel what to do next. The 
very next thing to do is to learn by heart a short 
and simple maxim, and to repeat it to herself until 
she has absorbed the essence of it into her very 
bones. The maxim is: "Little children wish and 
need to be doing something with their bodies and 
hands every minute they are awake." The prob- 
lem faced by every mother is to provide them 
every minute with something to do which can 
not hurt them, which will help them to grow 
and which will not be too upsetting to the regu- 
larity of the family life. 

Now the country mother has at hand a dozen 
easy and satisfactory answers to this problem for 
every one which is available to the city mother. 
To begin with, if a load of sand is dumped in 
one corner of the baby yard, and some old spoons 
and worn-out pails contributed from the kitchen, 
there vvill be many hours of every day during 



which the fortune of a millionaire could give the 
little folks no more happiness. Such a child-yard 
with sand-pile in it costs almost nothing in time, 
money, or effort, and no words can express the 
degree to which it lightens the labors and anxie- 
ties of the mother. And yet one can drive a 
hundred miles in rural and village America with- 
out seeing an example of it. 

Now this plain, bare provision for perfectly 
untrammeled running about is in itself a better 
fate than befalls the average child under five, and 
this much can be attained by any country mother 
with less effort and expense than a yard for 
poultry. But this can be varied and improved in 
innumerable inexpensive ways until conditions are 
almost ideal for little children. A piece of planed 
board can be nailed upon four stout sticks driven 
into the ground and another on higher sticks put 
before it, and the little folks will have a bench 
and table which cost, perhaps, twenty cents, and 
are as serviceable as the pretty kindergarten 
painted ones which cost ten times as much. 

Potter's clay can be bought for a few cents a 
pound, and for a variation from sand-pile plays 
young children turn gladly to clay modeling. If 
the mother has time and ability to supervise this 
carefully, so much the better, but if she is so busy 
that she can only call out from the kitchen stove 
or wash-tub a cheerful suggestion to make some 
little cups and saucers, or a bird's nest and eggs, 
this will serve very well, as a beginning. If the 
clay is kept where it can be obtained easily, it is 
possible that one or more of the children may 
show some stirrings of native ability and begin 
to try to reproduce the animal life of the country. 

Play with Water 

If the country mother has followed these sug- 
gestions she has now, with small trouble to her- 
self, put at the disposal of her children the two 
great elements of air and earth. There is another 
one, almost as eternally fascinating as sand, and 
that is water. If four strips of wood are nailed 
in the form of a square at one end of the little 
table and a pan half full of water is set securely 
down into this square so that it will not tip over, 
another great resource is added to the child yard. 
With an apron of oilcloth, a spoon, and an assort- 
ment of old tin cups, odd jelly glasses and bottles, 
it is an ahnormal child who is not happy and 
harmlessly busy for a long time every day. Any 
ordinary child over fourteen months of age loves 
to play with water in this way and learns steadi- 
ness of hand and sureness of eye which go a long 
way toward insuring agreeable table manners at 



146 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



an early age. As he grows older, a fleet of boats 
made of bits of wood or walnut shells vary the 
fun. A little apron can be manufactured in a 
few minutes out of ten-cents' worth of table oil- 
cloth. H the mother is very busy she can fasten it 
together at the shoulder and back with safety 
pins. A single apron should last through the en- 
tire babyhood of a child. 

Materials for Exercise 

Children under four, often those under five, are 
too small to "play house" as yet, but they delight 
in climbing, and, if possible, provision should be 
made for that. A wooden box can be set a little 
down in the ground, so that it will not tip over, 
and the edges padded with a bit of old comforter 
so that the inevitable bumps are not too severe. 
The smallest of the little playmates, even the baby 
who can not walk, will rejoice endlessly to pull 
himself up over the edge and clamber down into 
the box, thereby exercising every muscle in liis 
body. 

Little children can not coordinate their muscles 
quickly enough to play ball with much pleasure, 
but if a large soft ball is suspended by a long 
cord, they can swing it back and forth to each 
other with ever-increasing skill, and they should 
have a rubber ball to roll to and fro on the ground. 

A small wooden box with one side knocked out 
makes the best seat for a swing for small children. 
The three remaining sides make a high back and 
sides and keep the child from falling.* H this is 
swung on long poles instead of ropes there will 
be no side-to-side movement and little children 
will be safeguarded from falling out sideways. 
If the support for a see-saw is made very low. 



even children under five can enjoy it and benefit 
by it in acquiring poise. 

If a two-by-four board is laid on the ground 
the little folks will find much fun in trying to 
walk along it and acquire thus a considerable ad- 
dition to their ability for walking straight and 
managing their bodies. A bit of hanging rope 
with the loose end within easy reach will mean a 
great many self-invented exercises in balancing, 
and will give a certainty of muscular action which 
will save the child from many a tumble later. A 
short length of board, perhaps four feet long, 
propped up on a stone or bit of wood, with one 
end fastened to the ground, furnishes a baby 
spring-board which will delight the child. A pile 
of hay or straw to jump into will save the little 
gymnasts from bumps and bruises, and marsh hay 
will answer just as well as the best timothy. This 
simple set of apparatus may be completed by a 
short, roughly built ladder, with the rungs a short 
distance apart, set up against the house, with a 
soft pile of hay under it. This furnishes the little 
folks the chance to indulge their passion for climb- 
ing on things which is so dangerous when directed 
toward the kitchen table or bedroom bureau. 

Nothing in this baby yard need cost a family 
more than a few cents, nor take but very little 
time and almost no carpentering skill. And yet 
the suggestions made cover a very complete outfit 
for the outdoor exercises of children under five 
or six. Any mother who secures the simple ap- 
paratus here described may be sure not only that 
her own little children will pass numberless happy 
hours, but that they will never lack for playmates, 
because their play-yard will be sought out by all 
the little folks in the neighborhood. 



SELF-EXPRESSION DURING THE THIRD YEAR 



MARY L. READ 



During this year the child begins to run and 
jump and to develop what almost seems an obses- 
sion for several years — to walk along a coping or 
rail. For this stage Montessori provides a rail, 
like a railroad track rail, of wood. A long six- 
inch plank, fastened securely a foot above the 
ground, will provide a "bridge" that will furnish 
hours of fun, while it is training in finer coordi- 
nations. 



* Strips of iron bent to a right angle should be fastened 
over the corners of the box to keep it from spreading. — 
J. E. B. 



For jumping, a pit of sand, sawdust, hay. or 
straw is advantageous, as it breaks the jar of the 
alighting. Teach the child how to jump correctly 
and train him until this has become a habit. The 
knees should be bent, and he should land on the 
balls of the feet, not upon the whole foot or the 
heels. 

At this period of a child's life, his walk is 
marked by an easy natural grace in every motion 
of his body that ought to be encouraged by suit- 
able exercise. Otherwise, every vestige of his 
.desirable natural gait will soon be destroyed by 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



147 



the gradual stiffening of his muscles and the 
changes in his body produced by clothing and 
shoes. 

To know what is best for a child of this age 
involves a study of the life and habits of primitive 
man whom he resembles in so many ways. When 
running, for example, a child's instinctive motions 
show the inherited tendency to lean and fall for- 
ward, which was the way primitive man learned 
to run. 

If left to his own devices, much of the play- 
time will be spent in digging, building with his 
blocks, playing with his dolls, toy animals, and 
wagons. He still enjoys taking out and putting 
in, and should be able to use all the wooden insets 
of the Montessftri series correctly. Manipulating 
soft material is now a joyous pastime, but the 
little hands are not always strong enough to wield 
the clay or plasticine. There is nothing better 
now than dough from the bread and cookie-mak- 
ing; the material is soft and clean, and is thrown 
away at the end of the day. 

If a child wants to hammer during this year — 
and he probably does — a wooden mallet, some 
large iron nails, and a cake of laundry soap into 
which he may hammer the nails, will fill his 
heart with joy and be a valuable exercise in 
coordination of eye and hand. Any child of this 
age who can strike at a nail and hit it, one strike 
out of five, and not strike his fingers has a more 
normal accomplishment than one who can say 
.the alphabet, which is an abnormal accomplish- 
ment, tabooed in the modern nursery. 

For Color-Play 

To meet the desire for painting and using a 
pencil, provide a small brush such as house- 
painters use. This is a size adapted to the hands 
at this age. No paint is necessary, for the two- 
year-old is quite satisfied to play at painting the 
house and all the furniture. A blackboard and 
dustless crayon meets some of the requirements 
for drawing but does not express color well. The 
colored crayons do not show well under the light 
pressure of little hands, and the colored dust is 
the ruination of clothes and furniture. 

For color-expression, the large, colored mark- 
ing pencils should be used, during this and the 
succeeding year. These are as thick as a man's 
thumb, and come in all the spectrum colors. 
Cheap, plain, soft paper — manila, gray, or straw- 



color — is best for present use. Plenty of mate- 
rial for marking upon should be provided. Any 
thoughtless vandalism in marking upon walls or 
furniture should be promptly made a matter for 
discussion and discipline. 

For Music "Practice" * 

If the rhythmic exercises, marching and clap- 
ping, have been practiced, and the hearing of 
music regularly provided, the child will sing 
little snatches of song that he improvises or at- 
tempts to imitate. If he desires it, he should be 
allowed from now on to improvise in his own 
way upon the piano, without any effort for a 
year or so to teach him what to do or how to do. 
Of course he should learn always to wash his 
hands before he touches the piano, and misuse, 
as in thumping, should not be permitted. 

Small toy pianos, with small keys and one or 
two scales, with musical quality of tone, can now 
be purchased at from ten to twenty-five dollars. 
They will save the wear upon the family piano, 
while cultivating the child's love of music. The 
metallic, unmusical, cheap toy pianos should be 
kept away from the child as carefully as. cheap 
street songs and ragtime. 

Books and Pictures 

Pictures and picture-books should be selected 
with care. Children love pictures with vivid color, 
strong lines and action. They show a special 
preference for pictures of children and animals. 
The pictures should be large size with strong 
lines, in order not to tax the eyes. They should 
be true to Nature in their coloring. If placed on 
the walls, which is best, they should be put low, 
within the level of the eyes. 

Toward the end of this year the interest in 
nonsense words and rhymes develops. Mother 
Goose contains numerous rhymes that satisfy this 
need. At this stage the child is ready for the 
many animal stories and some of the nonsense 
verses of Edward Lear. It is a mistaken notion 
that young children can understand things only 
in words of one syllable, or that this is the ca- 
pacity of their intelligence. As soon as they can 
speak in a sentence, they can pronounce long 
words. This provides good mental gymnastics 
as well as furnishing humor for them. 



* .See also "Music During the Third Year," by Mrs. Jean 
N. Barrett, on page 355. 



BIG TOOLS FOR SMALL HANDS 



BY 

M. V. O'SHEA 



Some parents provide very small, fragile toys 
and tools for their youngest children. For the 
older ones they provide comparatively large dolls, 
blocks, and so on. They act on the theory that 
the small hand of the young child is suited to 
manage only small, delicate objects, while the 
larger hand of the youth is adapted to the manipu- 
lation of big things. 

The young child can manage his biceps better 
than he can the tips of his fingers. The part of 
the brain that controls the biceps is better de- 
veloped in a very young child than the part that 
controls the adjustment of the thumb and fingers 
to and with each other. The infant can not ad- 
just his thumb to his fingers so as to perform a 
fine task. This is why we say that an infant's 
fingers are all thumbs. Observe the hand of an 
infant, and see how crude an instrument it is 
when he attempts to perform a precise ta.sk with 
it. The large, coarse, brawny hand of the man 
is much more delicate and coordinated than the 
hand of the year-old child when considered with 
regard to the execution of precise tasks, such as 
threading a needle. 

Observe a six-months-old child trying to pick 
up a pin or raveling on the floor. The thumb and 
fingers will be coordinated in a crude, awkward 
way, so that many children of this age can not 
pick up any small object. The two-year-old can 
do this better than the six-months-old child. If 
the child develops normally, he can at the age of 
five so control the fingers in relation to the thumb 
that he can thread a needle, say, though if it has 
a small eye, he will have a good deal of difficulty 
with it. The typical two-year-old child can not 
perform this task because his nervous system is 
not developed so that such highly coordinated 
actions can be executed. 

One sometimes hears a mother say, "My three- 
year-old child can not sew because he hasn't 
strength enough." He has strength and plenty 
of it, but he can not use it properly in the per- 
formance of fine, precise tasks. He can not ar- 
ticulate difficult vocal combinations, but he has a 
superabundance of crude vocal strength. He can 
make plenty of noise, as any parent will testify. 

If he tries to perform a delicate task, he thinks 



he must use a lot of energy, when what he needs 
to do is simply to coordinate his fingers in a way 
which requires but very little energy. So he 
over-exerts himself, as when he tries to write 
with a fine-pointed pen — he bears on. 

A wise mother will always surround a young 
child at the table with an area of rubber cloth, 
because she will realize that he fan not carry a 
spoonful of milk to his mouth without spilling 
it. He has enough strength to do this, but he 
can not control its use so as to perform so deli- 
cate a task. No mother would let a two-year-old 
handle a sharp razor. He may realize that he 
should be careful or he will cut himself, but he 
lacks the fine control or coordination necessary to 
use edged tools with precision. Numberless illus- 
trations of this principle might be cited. 

Feeble-minded persons never develop a high 
degree of coordination. A man may be thirty 
years of age physically, but he may have a hand 
that is crude, uncoordinated, and incapable of exe- 
cuting any precise task. He may be as strong as 
an ox in his biceps, but as incoordinated and non- 
precise as an infant in his actions. Control of the 
hand, so that a great variety of delicate adjust- 
ments may be made, is impossible without full 
development of the nervous system and of the 
intelligence. To some extent the development of 
the mind and the development of the coordination 
of the hand go together. 

It is significant to note that when a man be- 
comes drunk he loses the coordination of his 
fingers and his tongue. Alcohol attacks the high- 
est nervous centers first, those that control the 
most coordinated or accessory muscular activities. 
The drunken man may have his biceps and fist 
under control so that he can fight as well as ever, 
but he may not be able to hold a pen in his fingers 
so that he can write, As he is getting drunk he 
spills his whiskey, because he can not coordinate 
his fingers so that he can hold his glass securely. 
He falls back speedily to the uncoordinated con- 
dition of infancy. 

In order that the child may develop coordina- 
tion properly, he should not be crowded too fast 
in the manipulation of small tools of any sort, 
those demanding precise adjustments. A child 



148 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



149 



of four or even five or six years who is required 
to thread a needle frequently vifill probably be 
overtaxed by it. Observe him and you will notice 
undue strain and tension in his face and body. 
There is evidence to show that children who are 
made to sew very much at the age of four or 
five are injured in their nervous development. It 
will be better for a young child to use a hammer 
or a saw or a plane, or to be running, jumping, 
throwing, and the like, than to be sewing or weav- 
ing with raffia or anything of the kind. 

When children begin school at the age of 
five, teachers sometimes have them write with 
pens or hard pencils. This is likely to injure 
them. If nothing worse, it will waste their 
nervous energy, because they always overdo a 
task of this kind. Young children can write with- 
out strain with chalk in large, free movements 
from five to ten times as long as they can write 
with a pen or a hard lead-pencil. 

Often parents provide penholders with small 
metal grips for their children. Observe a young 
child using such a pen, and you will see that he 
can manage it only with strain and tension. He 



will soon become fatigued because the task de- 
mands too great coordination. It would be better 
for him if he did not attempt to write with a pen 
until his seventh or eighth year, and even then 
he should use one with a large cork grip and a 
blunt point. 

Children who are required to read books with 
very fine print are apt to waste nervous energy, 
and they may develop eye-strain. The use of a 
microscope for hours each day by high-school 
pupils is likely to overtax the muscles of accom- 
modation. The principle is universal in its appli- 
cation, that whatever requires the child or the 
youth to coordinate beyond his stage of develop- 
ment frequently and for long periods will be 
likely to injure him. 

The moral is : A young child should use large 
tools and toys and perform only general, rela- 
tively incoordinated actions. As he develops let 
his tools and his activities become smaller and 
more precise until by the time he reaches maturity 
he should be able to use accurately implements 
requiring a high degree of coordination and pre- 
cise adjustments. 



PLAYTHINGS WHICH THE FATHER CAN MAKE 



WILLIAM A. McKEEVER, LL.D. 



TiiR ordinary busy father may easily find time to 
make a set of simple playthings for his children. 
He may thus also find a new avenue to the heart 
of the little ones. It will not be necessary to make 
many of these things at once, as two or three will 
be enough to satisfy the demands of the childish 
nature for change and variety. As these devices 
accumulate, some of them may be put aside for a 
while and brought out again later, to interest and 
delight the growing mind. 

Home-made playthings, even though crude, are 
usually preferable to the highly finished shop toys. 
With the simpler ones it is easier to fit the in- 
dividual needs of the child and to leave him some 
opportunity for initiative and adaptation. When- 
ever practicable, he should have a small part in 
cutting out and making his own playthings. 

In the adaptation of the child to his home-made 
toys two or three matters should be carefully ob- 
served: first, to encourage initiative and indepen- 
dence — not to do all the playing for him ; and 



second, to make the playthings a basis of fellow- 
ship between himself and others of his grade, and 
not a bone of contention. 

Finally, remember that the play of children is 
not to be considered as mere fun and amusement, 
but as a necessary means of satisfactory growth 
and development of character. 

The Baby Ladder 

It is necessary to indulge the childish instinct 
for climbing, and in order to do so one may easily 
make a simple ladder. The little one using the 
ladder will fall a few times, to be sure, but this 
■will illustrate Nature's best mode of instruction: 
that is, trial and error. The ladder is constructed 
out of two light white pine strips 1x2 inches and 
5 feet long, for the sides, and other strips the 
same size and 14 inches long for the rungs. Nail 
together firmly and remove all splinters. The 
three-year-old will obtain much pleasure from this 



ISO 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL, 



light device and will carry it far and wide in the 
course of his play.* 

The Nailing Block 

Secure a pine block 6x6 inches and about 2 feet 
long, also a small hammer to suit the size of the 
child and a quantity of sharp-pointed shingle 
nails. Show the baby learner how to use these, 
starting him right from the first. Both boys and 
girls enjoy the benefits of this interesting and 
instructive device. After the child has acquired 
ability to wield the hammer with considerable 
ease, various figures may be marked on the block 
for him to trace out by driving nails upon the 
lines. Have him print his name thus. 

The Building Blocks 

Building blocks never cease to interest the baby 
and to develop the infant ingenuity as well. They 
may be used indoors or out and they fit well into 
the play about the sand-box. In order to make 
the blocks most convenient for symmetrical struc- 
tures, cut them in two lengths, a third or more of 
them being exactly one-half of the length of the 
others.t A strip of white pine i x 2 inches and 
cut as suggested above, say, in 4-inch and 8-inch 



•"The ladder has been great fun for her. We had a 
very long stout one built for shingling the barn roof. This 
we laid out on the grass, and she spends hours walking the 
rungs. She is learning to balance while walking on the 
side pieces. We have to hold one hand when she is walk- 
ing there. Next to the sand-pile, this is her best entertainer. 
At first she stepped over the rungs. After a week she 
walked on the rungs, at first in her bare feet, by which she 
could cling, and now with sandals. We have been help- 
ing her walk on the sides for a week now, and she is able 
to go three feet all by herself." 

— Mrs. Elsie LaVerne Hill. 

t Mr. H. G. Wells, in his book, "Floor Games," gives 
the following as the proper sizes for such blocks: Whole 
blocks, 4'/'X2;4xl>S inches; half blocks, 2!4x 2^x15^ 
inches; and quarters made Ijy sawing the latter in two. Al- 
most any wood may be used to make these blocks except that 
which is likely to split or splinter or that which readily 
warps. In the northern and western States, maple and birch 
are usually available; in the South, short-leaf pine and yel- 
low poplar; and in the Far West, the sugar pine or western 
white pine. Basswood, beech, or sycamore may be used, 
ijlocks of hardwood, like oak, may be passed down from one 
generation to another. A box or chest to keep them in is 
almost a necessity. In addition to the blocks — from which 
no end of tilings can be constructed — Mr. Wells likes to 
have some play boards of the same wood. 18 x 9, 9 x 9, and 
9 X 4'/^ inches. These boards make oceans, islands. States, 
counties, platforms, stages, and may serve also as roofs, 
walls, tents, and targets. There can hardly be too many 
of the blocks, but a hundred will make a fair start. 

'^Editors, 



lengths, will serve the purpose well. See that all 
are planed smooth and are free from splinters. 

The Chair-Swing 

The child never ceases to love the swing. But 
to be useful the swing must have character, must 
fit the child nature and indulge the impulses prop- 
erly. In making a swing for the little one, there- 
fore, observe these directions carefully : 

1. Suspend the swing on a beam that is both 
firm and level. If the beam sags, the child will 
quickly tire. 

2. Spread the ropes or chains fully twice as 
wide apart at the top as they are at the bottom, 
and thus insure a steady, even, to-and-fro move- 
ment. Otherwise the swing will wabble and so 
spoil half its value. 

3. Make the seat broad, comparatively firm, and 
suspend it just high enough for the child to catch 
with his toes and swing himself. If the feet are 
not thus put into service, the child will become 
dependent, or angry because he can not make the 
thing go. 

Make the chair-swing as follows : 

The seat one foot square — the end of an egg- 
box will do. Bore five-eigbth-inch holes in each I 
of the four corners. I 

Cut four wooden strips i x i inch and i foot 
long and bore holes in both ends of these to match 
those in the seat, so they may be used for sides, 
front, and back. 

Secure four 4-inch tube insulators, to stand 
under the four strips described above, and keep 
them up as supports for the child. 

Cut a 25-foot length of quarter-inch rope into 
two equal parts, each to support one side of the 
swing. Pass the ends of each piece of rope down 
through the holes in the side strips, the tubes and 
the seat below, tying a firm knot underneath. 

Now pick up the two rope loops, hang them 
on two hooks of equal height, press the seat down 
level, and notice where the hooks dent the ropes. 
From that point flatten the two diverging strands 
together downward and loop them into a knot. 
Finally, hang the swing again, and level the seat 
by readjusting the two knots. 

This swing may be hung outside, may be car- 
ried on picnic trips, may be suspended in a double 
doorway, or even in a common doorway. 



MEMORY-WORK WITH MARGARET 



MRS. RHEA SMITH COLEMAN 



You will, of course, recognize that memory-train- 
ing goes hand in hand with sense-training. In 
fact, it goes hand in hand with almost every form 
of development. Differentiation of sounds, ob- 
jects, and colors is all "memory," as well as sense- 
training. When we return home from walks, 
trips to the city, or calls upon friends, I ask 
Margaret to tell me what she has seen and heard. 
In this way she remembers what she has learned, 
and on the next trip she will recall the things 
which impressed themselves upon her mind the 
last time. When shopping with her I call her 
attention to a few things rather than have her get 
but a hazy idea of many. For instance, we go to 
buy a pair of shoes, a coat and a doll. When 
she reaches home she is able to tell her Daddy 
where each thing was purchased and what she 
has seen in each special store. 

Margaret will often tell me a story of her play 
with little friends; with whom, where, and what 
they played. If, for example, they have played 
house, she will come home and tell me some such 
a story as this : "Mamma, we have been playing 
house under the big apple tree. Betty was the 
mamma, Jane the big sister. I was little sister 
and my dolly, Florence Nightingale, the little 
baby. We had a tea-party and I spilled my milk. 
Mamma rocked me to sleep. The baby was sick 
and Jane went for Doctor Billy. He came and 
took the baby's temperature. It was 102 degrees. 
He said Mamma should give her castor oil and 
make her stay in bed." 

The Story-Hour Helps the Memory 

Our story-hour has also been a valuable mem- 
ory-drill, for after I have told a story to Margaret 
a number of times, she will tell it to me. Some of 
our favorite stories are : "The Three Bears," "Old 
Woman and Her Pig," "Death and Burial of Cock 
Robin," "House that Jack Built," "Mother Hub- 
bard and Her Wonderful Dog," from O'Shea's 
"Nursery Classics;" "Babes in the Wood," "B'rer 
Rabbit and B'rer Fox," "Child Charity," "Cinder- 
ella and the Glass Slipper," "Little Goody Two- 
Shoes," "Miss Dolly and Captain Blue," "Peter 
Pan," "The Snow Girl," "The Three Little Pigs," 
"Tom Thumb," "Brave Little Dog of the Wood," 
"The First Apple Dumpling," "Story of Florence 
Nightingale," "Story of Grace Darling." Bible 



stories and stories from American Motherhood 
and Little Folk's Magazine are very good. 

At the age of one year I began to sing Emilia 
Poulsson's "Finger-Plays" to Margaret, at the 
same time teaching her to make the motions with 
her own hands as I sang. She readily learned 
these gestures. Later on, when she began to learn 
poetry, she seemed to grasp the whole of the little 
songs at once, and mafiy of them have eight verses 
of four lines each. Unconsciously the words had 
been impressed upon her little mind, so that when 
she could express herself she was able to give 
them verbatim. 

About 'Verbal Memorizing 

And this brings me to the subject which is gen- 
erally taken as the criterion of our children's 
memory, namely, the ability to recite many rhymes 
and verses. I think this is not an altogether fair 
estimate, for I have a friend whose little girl 
seems to have a very good memory for things, if 
allowed to tell them in her own words, but who 
doesn't seem to want to learn verses word for 
word. On the other hand, some children are 
able to recite any number of verses of poetry and 
yet not recall happenings. The ideal, to be sure, 
is ability to do both. My method with Margaret 
in training her to relate events in her own words 
I have already described to you. Now I shall tell 
you how I have taught her to memorize rhymes 
and poetry. 

First of all, don't force your Betty to learn 
rhymes ; don't cram them into her little head, and 
don't attempt to teach them to her line by line. 
As I have already mentioned, from the time Mar- 
garet was a small baby I have sung and recited 
to her many songs and poems. Before she was a 
year old, and still more in the second year, I re- 
cited Mother Goose rhymes to her, at the same 
time showing her the pictures. Now I recite to 
her poems of several verses, but I always choose 
those about things she knows and can under- 
stand. If there are lines she doesn't understand, 
I explain them to her through an object-lesson. 
Then again, I always recite and sing poems when 
there is occasion for them. Stevenson's "Swing 
Song" is given when swinging; "My Shadow" 
when Margaret discovers her shadow ; "My Ship 
and I" when sailing her toy-boat at bath-time; 



151 



152 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Riley's "There, Little Girl, Don't Cry" when the 
dolly or other plaything is broken; Kingsley's 
"Lost Doll" when dolly is lost; "Jesus Bids Us 
Shine," as well as the popular "Smiles," when my 
little girl cries ; Tennyson's "What Does Little 
Birdie Say" in the Spring when the baby-birds are 
in the nest; George Cooper's "The Leaves and the 
Wind," which tells of the falling of the leaves, on 
our walks in the Autumn ; Holland's "Christmas 
Carol" just before and during the Christmas sea- 
son ; little songs from the Victrola records when 
the records are being played or when occasion 
calls for them, as in the case of the charming 
little song sung by Olive Kline: 

" 'Pretty little blue-bird. 
Why do you go? , 
Come back, come back to me.' 
'I go,' said the bird. 
As he flew on high, 
'To see if my color 
Matches the sky.' " 

"Twinkle. Twinkle, Little Star" we say while 
looking at the stars; "The Moon," by Eliza Follen, 
when it shines in the nursery window at bed- 



time, and for good-night poems and songs, Riley's 
"Raggedy Man," Field's "Wynken, Blynken, and 
Nod" and Tennyson's "Sweet and Low." 

I have recited poems to my little girl times with- 
out number, but I rarely request her to say them 
for me. Often, when occasion arises for some 
particular poem, she will recite the entire poem, 
perhaps for the first time. In this way she 
has learned over seventy-five poems without the 
slightest strain upon her mind or nerves. She 
has no recollection of having been compelled to 
learn anything, but only pure joy in having a 
story in verse which she can tell, about many 
things she knows and loves. 

Then, again, I never urge Margaret to recite 
for guests. If she cares to help Mother entertain, 
very well and good, but she never feels that she 
is "showing off." There are many of my friends 
who are skeptical when I tell them Margaret 
knows seventy-five poems, because, as they say, 
"she has never recited them for me." But I am 
training my daughter not to be a "stage star," 
but that she may get from life the best and fullest 
that life has to offer. 



PICTURES, A FAIRYLAND 



MRS. RHEA SMITH COLEMAN 



Every baby loves a picture-book, but alas, most 
of them are left to "love it alone," when a little 
time and interest on the part of the mother would 
open up to it a world of appreciation of beauty 
and of art. Interest, too, must be supplemented 
by good judgment in the choice of pictures, just 
as truly as in the selection of books for the older 
boy or girl. Small children love pictures of fa- 
miliar objects, particularly when these objects are 
in action. Margaret's first pictures were those of 
animals and birds, of babes and little children, and 
of the easier Mother Goose rhymes. The picture 
of a dog chasing a cat or of a bird sitting on a 
limb beside its nest delighted her much more than 
one of a bird or dog alone. 

Until the age of eighteen months I would point 
out any little matter of interest in the pictures, 
as the color of a bird, or the baby reaching for 
an apple. After that time I began to show her 
classic pictures and tell her stories about them, 
pointing out the objects as I talked of them. I 
exercised great care in the selection of these 
pictures. Portraits of men and women do not in- 
terest any child. Margaret is very fond, however, 
of portraits of children, such as Van Dyck's 



"Baby Stuart," Reynolds' "Age of Innocence" 
and "Simplicity." She greatly enjoys naming 
the features and parts of the body and notes the 
dress and the position of hands and feet. "Sir 
Galahad" has always been a delight to her, and 
now that she can understand the story, she loves 
the picture more. She compares it to a picture 
of Joan of Arc clad in armor, standing beside her 
horse ; in fact, she sometimes mistakes the one 
for the other. 

Margaret spends many happy hours with her 
collection of pictures. She knows the names of 
about seventy-five classic pictures, can relate the 
stories of many of them and knows some of the 
painters. Some of her favorites are: 

AMERICAN ART 

"My Mother," by Whistler. 

"The Greatest American and His Flag," by Ferris. 

"Putting the Stars on the First American Flag," 

by Ferris. 
"The Liberty Bell's First Note," by Ferris. 
"Home-Keeping Hearts are Happiest," by Taylor. 
"Spring," by Cox. 

"Mother Goose," and other pictures, by Jessie 
Willcox Smith. 



Jl 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



153 



ITALIAN ART 

"Madonna and Child," by Botticelli. 
"Sistine Madonna," by Raphael. 
"Holy Night," by Correggio. 

FRENCH ART 

"The Broken Pitcher," by Greiize. 
"Mother and Daughter," by Lellrun. 
"The Angeliis," by Millet. 
"Feeding Her Birds," by Millet. 
"The First Step," by Millet. 
"The Horse Fair," by Rosa Bonheur. 
"Joan of Arc," by Bastien-Lepage. 

FLEMISH ART 

"Baby Stuart," by Van Dyck. 
"Repose in Egypt," by Van Dyck. 

SPANISH ART 

"Immaculate Conception," by Murillo. 
"Divine Shepherd," by Murillo. 

DUTCH ART 

"Sheep," by Mauve. 

GERMAN ART 

"In the Temple with the Doctors," by Hofmann. 
"The Good Shepherd," by Plockhorst. 

BRITISH ART 

"Angel Heads," by Reynolds. 
"Age of Innocence." by Reynolds. 
"Penelope Boothby," by Reynolds. 
"Simplicity," by Reynolds. 
"Stag at Bay," by Landseer. 
"Sir Galahad," by Watts. 



You may wonder where I secured my collection 
of pictures. By being on the alert to preserve 
every good picture I found in magazines and 
books. Many of you, who have taken the Ladies' 
Home Journal, will remember that for four years 
each number had two or three classic pictures 
from the leading private collections. I pasted 
these on heavy cardboard, so that they could be 
handled and not be torn. These are especially 
valuable because they are colored. In addition, 
I have a number of Perry pictures. If you can 
use the brush and water-colors, you can add much 
to the value of these pictures by coloring them 
in their original colors. 

Thus have I tried to train my little daughter 
to use her senses and mind and to appreciate art. 
There is much that I have thought and visualized 
that I have been unable to accomplish, because of 
the many handicaps that most of us have ; the 
many household duties, the little economies that 
we of moderate means must ever practice, and a 
limited amount of strength, which in many of us 
falls far below par. But I have been able to 
accomplish something, because I have ever put 
Margaret's training and development ahead of 
everything else. It has been my first duty, my 
first responsibility. My house, many times, has 
been neglected for her sake. I believe 'many 
mothers are prone to put house-care above child- 
care, for which the children must surely suffer. 
Margaret has always been made to feel that the 
home has been made for her, as indeed it has been 
from its very foundation. 



STORIES TO TELL THIS YEAR 

SELECTED BY 

THE EDITORS 
These references are to the Boys and Girls Bookshelf 



VOL. PAGE 


I saw a ship a-sailing 


25 


Goosey, goosey, gander 


1 25 


Once I saw a little bird 


1 25 


The wind 


25 


Ring-a-ring-a-roses 


25 


Cross patch 


I 26 


Happy let us be 


26 


The old woman in the basket 


26 


The fox and the old gray goose 


28 


Jack and Jill 


29 


Willy boy 


I 29 


Bonny lass 


29 


Oh, where are you going 


30 


Bobby Shaftoe 


I 30 


Ding-dong-bell 


1 30 



Green gravel 

Old Mother Hubbard 

Little Bo-Peep 

Come out to play 

Little Robin Redbreast 

Little Boy Blue 

Beggars are come to town 

Blow, wind, blow 

Bye, Baby Bunting 

Three little kittens 

Tom was a piper's son 

Daffy -do wn-dilly 

Billy Boy 

Three wise men of Gotham 

Little Tommy Tucker 



VOL. PAGE 

32 
32 
34 
35 
35 
36 
37 
37 
37 
38 
39 
40 
40 
41 
41 



154 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



VOL. PAGE 


Pussy and the mice 


41 


When I was a httle boy 


41 


Little fat boy 


42 


A finger test 


42 


Pussy cat, pussy cat 


45 


Little Boy Blue 


45 


Hickory, dickory, dock 


46 


How many miles to Babylon 


47 


Hark, hark 


47 


There was an old woman 


48 


Humpty Dumpty 


51 


The queen of hearts 


54 


One misty, moisty morning 


54 


Old King Cole 


55 


Pussy sits beside the fire ' 


56 


The north wind doth blow 


I 56 


I had a little husband 


57 


There was a man in our town 


57 


See saw, sacaradown 


57 


Sing a song o' sixpence 


58 


I love little pussy 


58 


The Horner brothers 


59 


A little old man 


60 


Jingles 


60 


A most wonderful sight 


60 


Sailing 


1 61 


An up-to-date pussy-cat 


62 


Misery in company 


63 


Court news 


I 64 


A message to Mother Goose 


1 65 


The sleepy-time story 


73 


The go-sleep story 


75 


The wake-up story 


83 


About six little chickens 


86 


"Trade-last" 


1 88 


Philip's horse 


89 


The kitten that forgot how to mew 


90 


What could the farmer do 


93 


Fledglings 


97 


"Time to get up" 


98 


Maggie's very own secret 


100 


The good little piggie and his friends 


102 


Baby's paradise 


105 


For a little girl of three 


108 


A funny family 


1 109 


Little by little 


110 


The house that Jack built 


1 111 


Giant Thunder Bones 


1 112 


The house that Jill built 


1 116 


The old woman and her pig 


1 119 


The lambikin 


I 121 


The cat and the mouse 


I 123 


Henny-penny 


1 124 





VOL. 


PAGE 


Three goats in the ryefield 




127 


Teeny Tiny 




129 


Song of the pear tree 




130 


Cock-alu and Hen-alie 




131 


There is the key of the kingdom 




136 


Tommy and his sister and their new pony- 






cart 




138 


Timothy Trundle 




143 


A dream of glory 




148 


Tiny Hare and the wind ball 




173 


How Tiny Hare met cat 




176 


The wee hare and the red fire 




179 


The good king 




182 


Early and late 




184 


The little pink pig and the big road 




185 


Juggerjook 




188 


The little gray kitten 




194 


Pussy's wheels 




197 


The small gray mouse 




198 


The rabbit, the turtle and the owl 




200 


Homes 




201 


The fine good show 




204 


Gay and Spy 




208 


The three bears 




220 


The little bear's story 




221 


I like my cat 


3 


6 


Do you like cats 


3 


6 


Fox and dog and cat 


3 


8 


Cat and kittens 


3 


8 


Five little birds 


3 


10 


The little girl and her sheep 


3 


11 


The little boy and the little girl and the 






donkey 


3 


12 


Where 


3 


13 


Good-night 


3 


14 


Polly, put the kettle on 


3 


16 


Some things to guess 


3 


17 


Some things to find 


3 


18 


The -dancing class 


3 


19 


Fly, little bird 


3 


21 


Birds 


3 


22 


The jay and the dove 


3 


22 


The bird in the tree 


3 


23 


"We'll go to the wood," says Richard to 






Robin 


3 


23 


The clouds 


3 


25 


A story 


3 


26 


Another story 


3 


26 


The crooked family 


3 


27 


Mary's cat 


3 


27 


The little red hen and the grain of wheat 


3 


31 


The story of the three little pigs 


3 


42 



MUSIC DURING THE THIRD YEAR 



BY 



MRS. JEAN N. BARRETT 



Happy the child whose lot is cast in a joyous 
musical atmosphere ! There is thus implanted in 
his inner being a something which will help him 
to go through many trials with a brave heart and 
an unconquerable hope and faith that this is, 
after all. a good world. 

We constantly hear mothers say, "No, my chil- 
dren have no talent for music and I shall not 
bother to have them learn anything about it." 

If I could feel that I had in all my life made a 
few mothers, a few teachers, understand the dif- 
ference between music as a performance and 
music as a life element, and thereby gained for 
a few children this power which more than any 
other stirs the vital forces by which we live, I 
should feel that my share of life's troubles were 
a small price to pay. 

A like misapprehension in the domain of art 
would banish from home and school the beautiful 
pictures and art forms which awaken a love of all 
that wonderful world of beauty revealed to the 
seeing eye and the appreciative mind because, per- 
force, so very, very few children have any talent 
for drawing, painting, or modeling. 

One of the first steps in rousing a feeling for 
music is to lead a child to listen. How much 
stress is laid in our scheme of education upon 
teaching a child to observe, to see ; how little upon 
teaching him to hear. The eye is made dominant 
in all things and we lose much enjoyment which a 
trained sense of hearing might bring us. God 
made the birds beautiful, but He also gave them 
songs, so tender, so thrilling that the very breath 
stops that we may listen, as we sit at twilight near 
the home of wood thrush or song sparrow. 

To the open ear is not the gentle, silvery mur- 
mur of the brook as it calls through the forest as 
keen a delight as is its crystal shimmer in a set- 
ting of green, when we have followed its call and 
found its home? 

Let us not forget that the morning stars sang 
together, and that He who created them meant 
His children to hear their music in the melodies 
and harmonies of all His great creation. 

Even the City Has Its Music 

The child brought up in the city hasn't the 
beautiful sounds of Nature from which to get 
K.N.-13 155 



his first lessons in listening, but mother and kin- 
dergartner can make use of what they have. 
Even the scissors-grinder and ragman help us 
out here.* 

One of my little pupils, the daughter of musical 
parents, gained her first idea of imitating sounds 
correctly from a ragman's call. As we were hav- 
ing our lesson one day we heard this song come — 
I was going to say float, in at the window, but the 
ragman's tones were rather too strenuous to be 
called floating tones : "Rags, rags, rags ; any old 
rags or bolt's." The tune can be written thus: 
"Do si la sol sol sol do do," but no words can 
describe the quality of the tones. At once I imi- 
tated the theme, and little Frances, to my great 
surprise, imitated me exactly, whereas before this 
she had hardly been able to get one single note 
correctly. His "tune" was unique and it appealed 
to her. 

Musical Sounds in the Home 

Lead the children to listen in every way you 
can think of.f Tap on different substances, wood, 
glass, silver. You may find a lampshade that 
gives forth a definite musical pitch. Play tunes 
on tumblers, tuning them to musical pitches by 
varying the quantity of water in them and strik- 
ing lightly with silver knife or spoon. This de- 
vice I found most useful in arousing interest in 
music in a boy who seemed to have no musical 
instinct whatever. 

A writer says: "The greater part of children's 
time is spent in elaborate impersonation and make- 
believe, and the entire basis of their education is 
acquired through this directly assimilative fac- 
ulty." This applies most forcibly to music and 
gives to those who have the care of children 
almost unlimited opportunity for developing 
musical expression. 

A lullaby song at the child's bedside at night is 
a benediction beyond estimate. 



* .\n .^olian harp can be made on a long, thin pine 
box, about four or six inches deep. Fasten to each end 
of the box little bridges, like those on a violin, and stretch 
across them thin strings of catgut. At one end fasten the 
strings to the box itself, and at the other to screw-pins. 
By this means the strings can be tightened or loosened at 
will. Place the harp in a current of air, and very sweet 
soft notes may be obtained. 

t It is a pretty idea to imitate the striking of the hours 
and quarters by a chime-clock on the home piano. 



156 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Using Music for Home Harmony 

A few instances of what lias been done in some 
homes through the power of music will, I know, 
tell you more than the mere advancement of 
theories. 

A little girl who was very miserable and man- 
aged to make Mother or nurse most unhappy 
all through the process of hairdressing and get- 
ting into bothersome clothes, would submit most 
graciously if Mother sang 

"My mother bids me bind my hair 

With knot of fairest hue; 
Tie up my sleeves with ribbon rare, 

And lace my bodice blue ; 
For why, she says, sit still and weep 

While others are at play?" 

using an adaptation of Haydn's beautiful air. 

Another mother learned to help her little boy 
work off some of his stormy fits of temper by 
going to the piano and playing some stormy, im- 



My sister remembers that even as a child she 
recognized this power of music to bring sweet- 
ness out of temper. She was very angry one day 
with a sense of some injustice done her and in 
tliis mood started to play her beloved piano. As 
she did this she realized that if she played she 
would soon cease to be angry, and not being ready 
to give up her resentful mood, she rejected the 
gentle ministry of music and went to her room 
to nurse her unhappiness. 

As an incitement to bravery, music has often 
been used in the home. A little boy much afraid 
of the dark would go upstairs to a dark room for 
mother when she played a strong march for him 
as he went. 

li mothers could realize how many times a bit of 
music would be of greater service than even the 
kindest remonstrance, they would have crashing 
chords ready for the angry boy, nonsense song to 
drive scowls from the face of little daughter, and 



Very slowly. ^ 




-si-- -«• 

A quarter past the hour! Half pastl 



A quarter beforel 



isfe 



The clock strikes ninel 



t=(- 



liS^g 



gp 



Bz 



-&■' -c- 



S^i 



The hour approaches! 



petuous bit like Schumann's "Wild Rider.** The 
boy did not know why this was done, but he felt 
the mood of the music because it exactly fitted his 
own, and he would career around the room like 
a veritable wild pony, until his emotion, which 
might have worked harm to himself and others, 
had spent itself in this harmless way. 

* The talking machine is most helpful here. Descriptive 
music, music which is imitative, or which tells a definite 
story helps to develop the power of attention in little chil- 
dren. 

An excellent phonograph record of descriptive music is 
"In a Clock Store" (Victor 35324). Tell the following 
story: "In a small shop on a busy street are kept ever 
so many kinds of clocks — cuckoo clocks, grandfather clocks, 
alarm clocks, small clocks, and ordinary -sized clocks. A 
very happy boy works in this shop. He comes early in 
the morning, and as he sweeps and dusts, the people pass- 
ing by hear him whistle a merry tune. Sometimes the 
clatter of his wooden shoes is heard above the ticking and 
the striking of the clocks on the shelves. The clocks in 
this store are real clocks — they tick and strike, they run 
down and need to be wound up; the cuckoo clock tells the 
hour of the day; even the alarm clocks are not silent. The 
little boy works all day long until the clocks strike four. 
Then he locks the store, runs home to play, and doesn't 
return until the next day." Play the record and ask the 
children to listen for the story, but do not expect them 
to get it all the first time they hear it. Little people enjoy 
telling this story, in their own words, to family friends not 
familiar with the music. 

The "Toy Maker's Shop'* (Victor 55054) and "The 
Whistler and His Dug" (A 2654 C or Victor 17380) are 



5-#- -#- -#- -•-S#^ MP^ ^ -•-i-<S^ 



i 



jolly jig to set lagging feet and drooping spirits 
dancing; while a gay little tune improvised or 
adapted for the occasion would often bring cheer- 
ful obedience in response to the request to pick 
up playthings or perform some other unwelcome 
task, where a stern command would start an un- 
happy time for all concerned.* 

other records which necessitate careful listening in order to 
recognize all the sounds imitative of the toys kept in the 
shop. Let the children imagine their own pictures this 
time, and after the record is played, let them tell which 
toys and animals they heard. 

Little people are interested in Teddy Bears, so naturally, 
"Of a Tailor and a Bear" (Victor 18598), a selection with 
bear growls, appeals to their imagination. After playing 
the record, the children may tell the story which the music 
suggests to them; or they may tell it through paper cutting, 
drawing, or crayon work. 

Whistling records are excellent because the melody is so 
distinct. "Birds of the Forest" and "Spring Voices" (both 
on Victor 16835) are good imitations of the sounds of 
nature. The bird songs will be recognized immediately. 

"The Bee" (Victor 6-tl97 or 77899 — Columbia) should 
be familiar to every child. It represents the buzzing of 
the busy little bee as she hurries from flower to flower in 
search of honey. Ask the children how the bee music tells 
the bee story. 

Another descriptive record which appeals to the imagina- 
tion is "Dance of the Wood Nymphs" (Victor 16891). It 
suggests a lovely forest in fairyland. Let the children 
imagine their own pictures of this record. 

Contrast "Happy Days March" (Victor 16001) with 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



157 



One of my childhood memories is of visiting in 
a country home where the mother would often get 
up from the hreakfast-table and say, "Come, let us 
sing a little before we do the work." 

Bad housekeeping, perhaps, but good home-mak- 
ing, for I have since learned that this method was 
always resorted to when the morning atmosphere 
of the home threatened to be gloomy or quarrel- 
some : and the singing never failed to drive away 
the clouds. Of course, this use of music is most 
effective with a child who is either endowed by 
nature with the ability to respond to musical in- 
fluence or has been trained in ear and heart to 
feel its effects. 

Early Sensitiveness to Music 

A child who has always heard good music and 
has early learned to love and produce it, has great 
advantage over one to whom it comes as a later 
and more foreign achievement. Responsiveness 
to the atmosphere of music is not, however, de- 
pendent upon the ability to create it, although, of 
course, made stronger by it. A little four-year- 
old child who had no natural ability for either 
singing or playing, being deficient in both rhyth- 
mic sense and sense of pitch, nevertheless was so 
sensitive to musical impressions that she described 
the tunes which were played to her as being pink 



and red and blue like the sky, and one which had 
strong chords with a staccato melody above them 
as the green tune with red letters. These inter- 
pretations of music in terms of color were later 
e.xplained by the development of an unusual de- 
gree of talent with pencil and brush. 

Another memory of my childhood is of a visit 
to a dear auntie who, on Sunday afternoons, 
took her little visitor to the west pasture and 
amid the splendor of the sinking red sun read 
from a volume of sacred poems. The cadence of 
her sweet low voice will always echo through 
my memory. 

It is truly a part of music's ministry to speak 
through the charm of a well-modulated, pleasant- 
toned voice, lending itself freely to the various 
moods of the fine nature it serves. It is truly 
one of the duties of the mother and the kinder- 
gartner to be a model for children in this respect 
as in many others, for children are very sensitive 
to voice quality. 

To sing the lilting measure when the heart is 
gay, to give thanks for cherished blessings in the 
glad hymn of praise, to send upon wings of song 
a prayer for strength to bear the burden and grief 
too heavy to be borne alone, this is what God's 
great gift of music should mean to us. Let us 
help the little children to enter into their heritage 
of song. 



COMPANIONSHIP: HOW TO FURNISH IT 



MRS. PRESTON F. GASS 



Very little children of two and three years require 
the companionship of other children in work and 
play as much as those of recognized kindergarten 
age. The child of two is intensely interested in 
the activities of children four, five, and six years 
old, and is able to imitate, enlarge his knowledge 
and experience, and even share in their activities. 
The activities of the adults about him, while they 
can be imitated and in some measure shared by 
him, can not have the same value in his mental or 
physical development. 

"Cradle Song" (Victor 17254) and "Dance of the Wood 
Nymphs" with "Military Escort March" (Victor 17368). 
Play these repeatedly and let the children discover the dif- 
ferences in the music. 

There are many beautiful bedtime songs, such as "The 
Traumerei" (Victor 18049). Two beautiful lullabies are 
"Sleep, Little Baby of Mine" and "Slumber Sea," both 
on Victor 17212. Eugene Field's "Wynken, Blynken and 
Nod" (Victor 64219) is another. Two others, "Mammy's 
Song" and "Pickaninny's Lullaby" (both on Victor 17039), 



When Daddy saws a large board with a large 
saw, the two-year-old is interested : but when the 
four-year-old saws a small board with a small 
saw, possibly making some toy that will be used 
by the little one, he is more than interested — he 
saws wood as soon as he can. Watch an adult 
try to amuse this two-year-old with a new box of 
blocks. Invariably the blocks are piled high for 
steps, towers, arches, and so forth, and the little 
child finds great delight in sending the blocks 
tumbling with a crash to the floor. He takes no 

win be enjoyed more if the children know the "Uncle 
Remus Stories," by Joel C. Harris. 

With the use of such songs and instrumental phonographic 
music as is suggested above, the home lessons in music can 
be no other than delightful and educative. Parents will 
become acquainted with the musical tendencies of their chil- 
dren: a new world of beauty will be opened to the im- 
pressionable young minds so eager for musical experiences: 
and family life will become more intimate and beautiful 
through the socializing influence of good music. 

— Theresa Wild. 



iS8 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



particular pleasure in the building of one block 
upon another, and we think he has not yet reached 
the age for building. Now the group of older 
children making structures with these same blocks 
do not pile them one upon another, but lay them 
side by side, to form the walls of a house for the 
doll or a barn for the woolly dog. And immedi- 
ately the little one is interested — not in tumljling 
the blocks down, however, but in laying them be- 
side each other, one after another. 

Many mothers realize this need of their chil- 
dren to have group activity, but know of no way 
in which to bring the group together until they 
are ready for the regular kindergarten. It can 
be accomplished in almost any home, however, if 
the mother is willing to devote a few hours a 
day to working and playing with the children in 
the immediate neighborhood under school age, or 
those at home for the long summer vacation. 

Whenever the weather will permit, activities 
are best carried on out of doors and very little 
equipment is necessary; a sand-pile, if possible, 
an unused kitclien table, or wide board laid on 
any available foundation, with boxes for seats or 
the little chairs which each child may bring from 
home. The materials already on hand for use by 
the children in the home, such as balls, bean-bags, 
blocks. Mother Goose and other story books, will 
serve the whole group. The other mothers of the 
neighborhood are sure to be willing to contribute, 
for the use of all, materials which their own chil- 
dren possess, and each child can bring some of his 
pennies for the purchase of paper, paste, crayolas, 
and so forth. 

Our Home Neighborhood Nursery 

Perhaps an account of our experiment will 
serve best to show how the nursery school can be 
carried on in an ordinary home. We lived in a 
sparsely settled suburb of a large city, and the 
only available kindergarten for the children im- 
mediately about us was situated at such a distance 
that none of the mothers would permit them to 
attend. Our group consisted of our own boy of 
two years, another child of the same age, three 
children of four years, two of five, and two of 
six. 

Fortunately, when we built our six-room bun- 
galow, we provided a nursery for our little ones, a 
large practical room with fireplace and built-in 
shelves, so that our group found space for all 
indoor activities there. Any room not needed for 



other purposes at the time of the school session 
might be used equally well. 

As a center for outdoor work and play we had 
a sand-pile under the trees. This had been left 
by the builders, and to close it in, the children dug 
trenches on four sides, into which we inserted 
planks. 

Two of the mothers had old kitchen tables not 
in use. The legs we cut off at the right height 
for children to work at, and several children con- 
tributed their little chairs. A trip to a lumber 
mill near by provided us with all the soft-wood 
boards needed for making things with little saws , 
and hammers, some of them being cut up into 
building blocks to supplement those we already 
had. 

For pets we had gold-fish, a mother bunny with 
little ones, and our own tiny baby of three months. 
The baby served as a center for many of our do- j 
ings ; many times our songs were sung to him, our 
houses of blocks made for him, our table con- 
structed for him. The children watched him grow 
through the months, and he was the real main- 
spring of our group-life. 

The Advantages of Such a Nursery-School 

Since the group was made up of children of 
varying ages, each younger child depended on an 
older for leadership, assistance, and consideration. 
The five and six-year-olds learned to lend a hand 
to the four-year-olds and to be patient and kind 
with the littlest ones. 

Having a neighborhood nursery-school has a 
tremendous advantage for the busy mother who 
has difficulty in finding time for uninterrupted 
work and play with her own child. Children will 
play contentedly together for long hours, espe- 
cially if they are provided with a few materials to 
work with. And as the hours of the nursery- 
school become known in the vicinity, the children 
confine their visits more and more to this time. 
The whole routine of housework is accomplished 
more quickly and in better spirits when at the 
same time the mind is occupied with the learning 
of stories, finger-plays, songs, games, and so forth, 
and on the planning of work for the children. 

The nursery neighborhood-school not only af- 
fords the busy mother in the ordinary home a 
means of giving the right kind of training to her 
own child, but it provides the opportunity for 
knowing in an intimate and unusually happy re- 
lationship the children who are to be his play- 
mates for a number of years. 



GETTING OBEDIENCE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING 



BY 



MRS. DHLLA THOMPSON LUTES 



"If a child 'd'on't mind," says one, "without being 
whipped, what are you going to do?" "I have 
neither time, strength, nor patience," writes an- 
other, "to spend in argument. If my children 
don't mind by being told to do a thing, I take a 
switch to them." "This disciplining without whip- 
ping," says another, "is a new thing, at least to 
many of us, and we don't know how to do it. 
You say we ought to govern our children without 
whipping them, but you can't tell us how." 

If a child zvoii't mind without being whipped — 
and it is necessary that he should mind — why, then 
I suppose he's got to be whipped. But, if in his 
childhood he has learned obedience only at the 
end of a rod, how is he to be governed when he 
reaches the age where he will be too big to be 
whipped? 

I've heard men say, "Well, so long as he lives 
under my roof he won't be too big to lick." The 
sons of such men usually run away as soon as 
they've reached the earning stage. 

Two Objects in Securing Obedience 

In the first place, what is the object of training 
and getting obedience? Is it to gain the immedi- 
ate end, or is it to train the child in self-control, 
self-restraint, good citizenship? Of course, if it 
is simply and only the former, then it doesn't so 
much matter how it is done. Usually in good 
government there is the twofold object. The 
child is taught to do the immediate thing that 
ought to be done, and he is also taught to obey 
his conscience in doing always the right thing. 

For instance, when a very little child is given a 
box of playthings and dumps them out on the 
floor, his mother tells him that when he is through 
with them he must pick them all up neatly and 
put them away. There are tv\-o ends to be gained 
in getting obedience. The mother wants the play- 
things picked up from the floor because they can 
not remain there, and if he didn't do it she would 
have to ; but more than this she wants her child 
to learn habits of neatness, to take care of his own 
possessions, and to help her by doing so. She is 
teaching him life-lessons that must bear results 
all his life long. Now, suppose she tells him to 
pick up the things and he refuses. 



An Instance of a Fresh Motive 

An instance of this very kind came to notice 
only recently. A little girl of three was told 
by her mother to pick up her plajthings before 
Auntie came home. She refused, pleasantly, 
to do so. She simply didn't feel inclined to- 
ward that particular employment, and said, "No." 
The mother insisted and the child calmly refused. 
She was taken to the bath-room and her hands 
scrubbed — they were naughty little hands and 
Mother w-ould try to scrub the "naughty" off. 
But still the little hands wouldn't obey. The 
little girl didn't want to and she continued to say, 
"No." The mother was tired, half ill and nervous, 
but still she kept sweetly patient and tried dif- 
ferent tactics, all to no purpose. Finally the aunt 
came in, fresh, vigorous, used to children and 
was told the difficulty. "Why, of course, Baby '11 
pick up the blocks," she said cheerfully and with 
perfect assurance. "Baby's akvays a good girl. 
She always wants to help Mother. Come on now, 
let's see how quickly the blocks will Ry in." 

"Aw-yight," said baby, and the blocks went fly- 
ing in. The mother, nervous herself and half 
fearful that the child w-as going to resist, won- 
dering in her own mind what she should do if she 
did not succeed in getting obedience, had com- 
municated her own negative spirit to the child, 
aroused combativeness and resistance and could 
not secure obedience without coercion. The other 
took obedience for granted, expected it and got 
it. Having gained obedience cheerfully once, it 
would be e.asy to gain it in the same way again, 
and very shortly the taking care of her own pos- 
sessions would become a matter of course. If the 
strife had gone on between mother and child until 
the mother had been obliged to use force, it is 
questionable if the same situation would not al- 
ways after have been accompanied by discord, and 
the child have felt as if she picked up her blocks 
because she had to, not because it was her own 
duty and therefore to be done. 

Obstacles to Obedience 

There is usually some cause behind every diffi- 
culty. Sometimes the cause is revealed in one 
.short phrase, and sometimes no indication what- 



159 



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THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



ever is given. A mother writes at length about 
the nervous condition of her little child. She tells 
how the child cries aloud in her sleep, how fitfully 
she rests, how excitable, irritable, and nervous 
she is. She gives the child's dietary, and you find 
it correct. She tells you her habits, and you find 
nothing to criticise. Up to the very end of the 
letter there seems to be no reason whatever for 
the condition, and then, just at the close, you find 
this : "I know how to sympathize with her, poor 
little thing, for I am terribly nervous- myself, and 
so is her father. All my life long I've been a 
victim of extreme nervousness, and at times it 
seems as if I should lose my head entirely." And 
there's the secret. Inherited and infectious nerv- 
ousness, which can only be cured l>y long and 
patient building up of the system. 

Oftentimes plain stubbornness is an inherited 
trait of disposition, and yet the very parent who 
has transmitted it as a part of himself will not 
recognize it as a part of himself and try to train 
it out, but will be irritated at the will which op- 
poses his own and try to beat it out. 

The best way to get obedience is to study the 
child and find out what method will best obtain 
with him. And do not demand too much. Too 
many commands, particularly commands which 
infringe upon the child's individuality — arouse 
opposition. Nagging, fretting, constant ordering 
about, "don'ting" — all frustrate the desired end, 
shatter respect, and succeed only in disrupting 
order. 

There are a good many little things occurring 
in a child's daily life which it is best to overlook 
rather than constantly to nag for obedience. If 
you want your child to be an individual rather 
than an automaton, you can't keep at him con- 
stantly to "do and don't." Better to give a few 
commands, give them cheerfully, firmly, and ex- 
pectantly, than a lot of commands in "why-don't- 
you-but-I-don't-expect-you-to" tone of voice. 

Who Is to Blame for Unlovable Children? 

Children must be taught certain things for their 
own good, and in order to make them pleasant, 



lovable companions, as they ought to be. There's 
nothing much more irritating, wearing, and disa- 
greeable than a rude, unmannerly child, a child 
who constantly interrupts anybody and everybody 
that happens to be talking so long as his own 
voice is heard above theirs ; a child that is allowed 
to monopolize a conversation, to listen with ears 
and eyes to what a group of older people are say- 
ing, and interrupt with a continual, "Who, Mam- 
me?" "What, Mamma?" a child who is permitted 
to pounce upon any guest or caller, whether in- 
vited or not, and literally ride him until he wishes 
obligation never demanded his presence again. 
Children who are allowed to eat noisily and with- 
out neatness ; children who never are known to 
obey until, after an hour's continual "Come, now, 

do as I tell you ," "Go on now, and mind," 

"Why don't you mind Mother?" and other like 
vain and useless admonitions, the exasperated 
parent gets up and forces obedience — getting it 
that time only, and after an unpleasant scene and 
wearying exertion- — such children, of course, are 
not loved by any except their own people, and yet 
— the children are not to blame. Firmness in the 
very beginning, few commands rigidly obeyed, 
quiet, pleasing, and courteous manners insisted 
upon from babyhood up, would bring the desired 
result without friction and with pleasure and 
advantage to all concerned. 

Study Your Child, and— Study Yourself 

If your own self-control is lacking there can 
be no control of others. Study your own manner 
of speech with your children. If you speak with 
hesitancy, lack of firmness, assuming at the be- 
ginning that they are going to pay no attention, 
you are pretty sure to get such results. Children 
are the most sensitive of mechanisms, reflecting 
instantly the spirit of the one who attempts gov- 
ernment over them. 

Use tact, firmness, justice, decision, cheerful 
and assured expectancy, and in nine cases out of 
ten obedience will result without the necessity for 
coercion of any sort. 



JESSIE'S BEGINNINGS IN HELPFULNESS 



BY 



MRS. ELSIE LaVERNE HILL 



The busy mother may be surprised to learn that 
her children between the ages of one and three 
are aught but a constant care. Yet even at this 
early age they may begin to practice the gracious 
art of helpfulness, and gradually develop into 
really indispensable "assistants." Tiny hands can 
labor and at the same time keep out of mischief. 

The mother will need a large amount of pa- 
tience in order to teach her children many tasks. 
She should remember in taking up every new les- 
son that the children do not know what they are 
expected to do nor how to do it. Therefore, the 
mother must explain every detail very carefully, 
and show her children "just how Mother does it" 
many times until the clumsy little hands have ac- 
quired the knack. In the first few lessons their 
very eagerness will make them awkward. But 
each day the fingers will grow more nimble and 
as they become accustomed to handling the house- 
hold tools they will become more dexterous in 
using them. Old accomplishments should be gone 
over every day that they may not be forgotten 
while new ones are being mastered. So much 
repetition becomes very tedious to the mother, 
but the time and effort which seems to be lost 
will be more than made up later. 

A child at this age is not old enough to engage 
in much imaginative play, but tasks which would 
be drudgery to an older person are delightful play 
to him. Thus day by day new duties are added 
to the list until the result surpasses all expectation. 

If tliere is more than one child in a family the 
problem is much simplified for the younger chil- 
dren, as they will imitate, as much as possible, the 
actions of others, especially of their older broth- 
ers or sisters. Example is infectious, consequently 
if the older ones are trained correctly they will 
actually educate those following them. 

Children vary greatly in their capabilities. If 
one child rapidly acquires skill in doing a particu- 
lar task it does not necessarily follow that others 
of the same age will either learn as rapidly or as 
well. I know one little tot of two and a half 
years who, when her baby brother cries for a 



bottle, will carry it from the kitchen to him, prop 
it up conveniently on the pillow, and see that he 
drinks it all ; yet we need not expect all children 
of this age to exercise as much concern and care 
as she. 

From the beginning we have taught our little 
girls, Mary, "half past one," and Jessie, "half 
past two." to help in every way possible. Of 
course, on some days they do not do as much as 
on others, yet in the course of several days they 
do the things which for convenience we have 
grouped as one day's tasks. 

All in the Day's Work 

The first thing in the morning, both children 
take their blankets from their beds and spread 
them on a nearby rack to air. They take their 
clothes from the rack, on which they were hung 
the night before, and carry them in to Mother, 
who is ready to help with the dressing. Jessie 
is able to put on all of her clothes in the proper 
order, while Mother buttons them up and t'es the 
shoelacings. Mary can put on her shirt, dress, 
and stockings, but needs assistance with every- 
thing else. 

Just before dressing both children go to the 
bathroom, pull chairs to the wash-basin, and wash 
their faces and hands. Jessie manages both the 
cold and hot water faucets. Next comes the 
"toothbrush drill" and brushing of hair, which 
Jessie does most vigorously for both little heads. 

Then while Mother prepares the food for break- 
fast, Jessie puts the cups and saucers, plates, and 
other dishes at their proper places on the table, 
while Mary is busy laying the silverware. She 
can do this best if the knives, forks, and spoons 
are kept within her reach in a drawer which is 
divided into sections for each article. While 
Mary is pulling the chairs to the table, Jessie puts 
on the toast, butter, and jam (which Mother hands 
her). Then, together, they run to call Father, 
lessie hurrying back ahead of him that she may 
have time to climb into her high-chair. 



* The reader may at first he impressed that this mother either has some extraordinarily industrious children or that they 
are being worked to death. Notice, however, that the writer emphasizes the fact that all these activities are not performed 
regularly, but that this is simply an exposition of the large variety of things even little children can do to help, arranged 
for convenience as a day's program. I know these children, and they are no more dependable or regular than any other 
little ones, but I know it to be a fact that they have done all these tasks described, and that as they grow older they do them 
oftener. — IV. B. F. 

i6i 



1 62 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



After breakfast, work begins in earnest. Mary 
carries the silverware to the sink, while Jessie 
clears off the plates and saucers, scraping any re- 
mains of food into the garbage-pail. Then she 
piles the dishes into the dishpan. After Mother 
wipes the silverware Mary puts it back into the 
proper places. Jessie dries the tin dishes and puts 
them on the back of the stove. She also dries 
plates and larger pieces of crockery — if Mother 
does not treasure them too highly. She draws her 
chair up to the sink, where she cleans the milk 
bottles (though of course they must be scalded 
later), and when all dishes are done, carefully 
washes the sink. And then, since all children de- 
light to paddle in water, allow them both to play 
there for a treat. 

Dish-towels are now neatly hung on a rack to 
dry and the entire family turns to tidying up. 
Mary gets the dustpan and Jessie brings the broom 
to Mother. With her own small broom she very 
carefully sweeps all the dust out of the corners 
of the room, and from under the chairs and stove. 
Mary meanwhile busies herself by brushing all 
dirt from the porch and steps. After Mother has 
all the dirt collected into little piles Jessie holds 
the dustpan for her, moving it the least bit back 
as required, and holding it at the proper angle 
to allow the dirt to be swept into it. Of this 
accomplishment she is very proud, for it was 
acquired only after two weeks of earnest effort. 
She then carries the dustpan to whatever recep- 
tacle is provided and empties the contents therein. 
She follows this by dusting the chairs thoroughly, 
and with another cloth wipes off the bottom of the 
stove. With a pail and small shovel she is able 
to remove the ashes from the stove and to empty 
them into the ash-barrel. After feeding and water- 
ing the cat and dog, both children bring some 
small wood for the wood-box, and what Mother 
needs at any time they carry from the wood-box 
to her. 

Jessie then returns to her housecleaning, runs, 
under Mother's supervision, the vacuum-cleaner 
over the rugs and cleans any spots from the paint 
on the floor and wainscoting. Mary meanwhile 
takes the soiled clothes to the laundry-room, 
empties the library wastepaper basket, and helps 
Jessie straighten all the books in the bookcases, 
and the papers on the table. 

The Baby's Toilet 

Perhaps baby brother is now in need of some 
immediate attention. Mother decides it is time 
for his bath, so Jessie goes to his drawer and 
brings out what clothes he may need, and such 
articles for his bath as soap, towel, powder, and 
wash-cloth. Then they watch eagerly for the 



time when they can powder him. They probably 
will spill some on the floor, but the doing of it 
makes baby's bath-time a happy event in the day's 
routine. 

The next chore is to go to the yard, where they 
clean up all chips, papers, or other articles small 
enough for them to carry, Mary wishing the 
while that she could rake like her older sister. 

Afterwards Jessie helps Mother in preparing 
the dinner by going to the garden to assist in 
bringing back the vegetables, in washing them, 
and in setting the table. 

In this fashion half the day has passed pleas- 
antly for all. Instead of Mother being obliged 
constantly to stop her work and provide new play- 
things for her children, or to prevent Jessie from 
annoying her sister, she has kept both children 
busy and has saved herself many steps and no 
little time. 

After dinner the children take their naps and 
upon waking go to their play. When much romp- 
ing or playing with water and dirt makes a 
general clean-up necessary, they hang up their 
own hats and coats, put away their rubbers, and 
get ready to have their baths. These tub-baths 
they take by themselves. Mother coming only to 
wash their faces and ears. 

Supper is a repetition of breakfast to the lit- 
tle ones, who soon afterwards, exhausted by 
their long day of work and play, are ready for 
their beds. As fast as Mother can unbutton their 
clothes they take them off, hang them on the rack, 
and slipping into their nighties, tumble into bed. 

Work for Special Days 

On special work-days, such as washing, clean- 
ing, or baking days, they are of still greater as- 
sistance. On Mondays Jessie vigorously lifts and 
drops the handle of the vacuum-washer, hands 
Mother the clothes, straightens them out as they 
come from the wringer, and takes great pleasure 
in having the duty of washing out some articles, 
such as stockings, all by herself. She helps to 
carry the clothes to the line, passes them up to 
Mother one by one, as Mary hands up the clothes- 
pins from the bag. Later in the afternoon Jes- 
sie assists in taking in the laundry and sprinkles 
those garments that need it. 

On cleaning-days the girls like to take the rugs 
oufdoors and help beat them, to straighten them 
later on the floors, to go over the floors with the 
dry mop, to wipe down the stairs, and to wipe 
Bon Ami from the windows. On bake-days they 
"grind the dough" in th^ bread-mixer and hand 
me such articles as will' -be needed in the cook- 
ing. Later Jessie puts the mixing-bowls to soak 
in cold water. 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



163 



Outdoor Work 

These children are fortunate enough to live on 
a farm, so there is a host of pleasant things they 
can do which are denied to their city cousins. 
Mary can carry the mail to and from the R. F. D. 
box if a step of convenient size is placed for her; 
she can pick up apples and small potatoes ; carry 
written messages or a cool drink to Father in the 
fields ; and run many errands between the house 
and barn. Jessie can feed the chickens and help 
bed-down the little calves, which nerhaps are her 
"truly own." 

"All Work and No Play Makes Jack a 
Dull Boy" 

Even if these tasks were scattered over a num- 
ber of days, the girls would soon tire of them if 
Mother did not introduce a number of things to 
brighten up the hours and make the work jolly 
and happy. Songs, stories, and conversations are 
the best enliveners, though of course, if a child is 
really tired, a nap must be substituted, and when 
interest wanes new things taken up. Mother 
Goose rhymes have always proved a great help 
with our children, and we have special ones to 
go with almost every task. For instance, when 
calling the children in the morning I repeat : 

"Early to bed, early to rise 
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," 



or 



And at bath-times we use : 

"Rub-a-dub-dub, 
Three men in a tub. 

And who do you think they be? 
The butcher, the baker. 
The candle-stick maker; 

Turn 'em out! knaves all three!" 

These "knaves," of course, are the specks 
that surprise and alarm us all if we don't get 
thoroughly clean. 

Songs also may be freely introduced to tunes 
that we make up to go with a Mother Goose 
rhvnie. "Polly put the kettle on." "Little Miss 
Muffet," "Old King Cole," "Old Mother Hub- 
bard," "Little Jack Horner," "Hi-diddle-diddle." 
are good to sing while getting the meals ready, or 

"Run and set the plates for lunch. 
Knives and forks are in a buncli." 

And a good one for dish-washing time is: 

"Wash the dishes, wipe the dishes. 
Ring the bell for tea ; 
Three good wishes, three good kisses, 
I will give to thee." 

If the children are to help Mother while she 
tidies up the house, she may repeat: 

"Dolly's things are such a sight. 
Put the bureau drawers to rights," 



"Come, come, my dear children, 
L'p is the sun. 
Birds are all singing 
And morn has begun." 

While putting on their shoes we use: 

"One, two, buckle your shoe," 



or 



"Shoe the old horse. 
Shoe the old mare. 
Put a nail here. 
Put a nail there. 
Let the little colt 
Go bare, bare, bare." 

As they wash their faces and hands I say: 

"There's a neat little clock. 

In the play-room it stands. 
And it points to the time 

With its two little hands, 
And may we, like the clock, 

Keep a face clean and bright, 
With hands ever ready 

To do what is right." 



"Work while you work. 
Play while you play, 
And you'll be happy. 
The livelong day." 

For special tasks there are such rhymes as: 

"The old woman must stand at the tub, tub, tub, 
The dirty clothes to rub, rub, rub, 
And when they are clean, and fit to be seen. 
She'll dress like a lady, and dance on the green, 

for washing; "Pat a cake" for baking, and for 
looking after the baby, "Rock-a-by, baby," "Sweet 
and low," "Bye, Baby Bunting," and 

"Hush, be still as any mouse. 
There's a baby in the house. 
Not a dolly, not a toy. 
But a great big bouncing boy." 

Then always there are a number to put the 
children to bed by. such as "Deedle, deedle, dump- 
ling, my son John," "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," 
and "There was an old woman who lived in a 
shoe." 



164 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Telling stories also helps to entertain children 
at their work. Though any familiar fairy stories 
are good, it is nice to make the story fit the task 
in hand; such as telling "The Three Bears" while 
putting things to rights, "Little Red Riding- 
Hood" before sending them on an errand, and 
•'The Little Red Hen" when preparing the meals. 
Although the connection is very slight, the child 
soon requests the same story while doing the 
same task. 

Praise and Games as Rewards 

A child is very sensitive to praise, and even 
when the performance of any work has grown 
to be a habit, it is always wise frequently to ex- 
press surprise at the fact that they can do it so 
well and to praise them highly for any new 
accomplishment. 

Other means of appreciation might be the wear- 
ing of a certain pin or ribbon as long as some 
piece of work is done successfully, the placing 
of a gold star on a calendar for a helpful day, 
or the wearing of a necklace or other ornament. 
We even give the Oberlin College yell for Jessie 
when she is surprisingly quick with her tasks. 

Often the attention of the children may be held 
by making work into play. We like to play "the 
game of Fairy." For instance, if I am sweeping 
and have forgotten to bring in the dustpan, I say, 
"I wish a little fairy would put the dustpan at 
my feet." Immediately two little feet scamper 
softly into the kitchen and back, so that when I 
turn round the dustpan is lying before me. No- 
body is to be seen, but if I look around two shin- 
ing eyes will be peeking at me from some corner 
or other. Then, of course, I exclaim in deep 
surprise at the work of the fairy. 

Tools 

Whenever it is practicable, we provide for the 
children tools of the regular size for both work 
and play instead of the miniature ones. These 
seem to be more satisfactory to handle and have 
the added advantage of not getting "out of kilter" 
as quickly as the smaller ones, which are often 



poorly made. Jessie prefers to sift flour or sand 
in a sifter "just like Mother's," or to mix with a 
big spoon, and she takes great pride in her row 
of bright and shining implements. The only 
small tools they have are a broom, rake, wash- 
board, and iron. 

Some Difficulties 

There are difficulties met with in securing help- 
fulness, such as fatigue, dallying, quarreling, etc., 
which are likely to come up at any time. Real 
fatigue indicates the need of a nap or sometimes 
a rest for all in the big chair, with a story and 
perhaps a glass of milk or a slice of bread and 
iDutter. Dallying is often forgotten in a race to 
see who will get her task done first. Then, again. 
Mother will hurry through her work to help Mary 
pick up the papers, so we can all go to the barn 
to see the baby calf, or go for a walk to the 
woods. Although the girls can not tell time yet, 
we sometimes try to get our work done before 
the big hand gets around to a certain point. We 
have tried to eliminate quarreling as to which 
should do each task by always assigning definite 
tasks to each and then alternating each day. For 
instance, Jessie dries and puts away the kettles 
on the day that Mary puts away the silverware ; 
then the next day they "swap" jobs. 

Everybody Is Somebody 

We have tried to instill into the lives of the 
little tots the habit of helpfulness. Everybody is 
somebody at our house, and we all must have a 
share in the work as well as in the play. An im- 
portant factor is a regular program for the day's 
chores. The children know they are expected to 
do their part, and are eager to do it. This does 
not mean that they become drudges. Instead, the 
admirable tendency that almost every small child 
has of wanting to help Mother in everything is 
directed, and the sometimes troublesome and mis- 
chief-making little hands are kept busy. 

We believe our children are going to grow up 
into more loving and lovable women because they 
have always been compani')ns and fellow-workers 
with Mother. 



The childhood shows the man 
As morning shows the day. — John Milton. 



ORDERLINESS AND TIDINESS 



BY 



MRS. CAROLINE BENEDICT BURRELL 



The natural child is an untidy little being. One 
is not conscious of this fact while he is a mere 
baby, for until he is several years of age he has 
had someone to keep him clean and to put his 
belongings in order, and has. therefore, had little 
opportunity to show his tendencies toward or 
against tidiness. But it is to be doubted if the 
average child under nine years of age cares a 
whit if he be clean or dirty, unless upon special 
occasions. For instance, when "company is com- 
ing," he is glad to be washed and dressed so that 
he may be looked at approvingly or admiringly 
by the expected guest. But when there are only 
"home people" present he would, unless he be an 
exception to the general rule, be entirely willing 
to eat with dirty hands and face, and to wear 
the same soiled and tumbled clothing from morn- 
ing to night. Nor would he mind how "messy" 
h'is room was so long as he was allowed to play 
there undisturbed. 

Orderly Habits to Be Formed Early 

A very small child will strew his playthings 
over the nursery floor, and when told to pick them 
up and put them away, very often will rebel. This 
is usually because it is growing toward the end 
of the day and he is tired ; the quantity of things 
looks enormous to him, and his little body aches 
at the very thought of the task. Still, with tact 
he can be helped over the difficulty. It is better 
not to let so many things get about, but when one 
set of playthings is finished with, it can be put 
away in some easily reached place, and some- 
thing else taken out. A large covered box close 
at hand, or the lower part of a cupboard, makes a 
good place for toys. Then, too, if someone will 
help put things away, that assists wonderfully ; 
or he may be told that Father is coming, and the 
room must all be in order for him, for he will 
be sorry to see it upset. At all events, in some 
such way order should be taught, even to a very 
little child. 

Playmates are very thoughtless in helping cover 
the room with toys and then going home, leaving 
the little host to pick up ; this should not be al- 
lowed, but the mother should stop the play half 
an hour before time for the visitors to go home 
and all together the children should put things 
away, even at the risk of seeming inhospitable. 
The child taught in his own home that this is the 



riglit thing will, when he in his turn goes visiting, 
help to dispose of the toys at the neighbors'. 

Care of the Person and the Room 

So with the child's own room; here from the 
first he must learn to keep things in order. He 
can always 'put his nightgown on a chair, even if 
he cannot hang it up in the closet; he can set the 
bureau top to rights, put things in the drawers 
and stand his shoes in an orderly row. When the 
bed is being made, he can help, and dust, and 
straighten the curtains. Really, he will enjoy the 
feeling of importance in doing all this if it is 
done cheerfully, not considered a task so much as 
a pleasure. If from his childhood he knows the 
duty of orderliness in his own room, he will prob- 
ably never become that selfish being, a man who 
lets his sister or his wife pick up and put away 
his things, carelessly strewn everywhere. It is 
only right that he should feel that he is respon- 
sible for everyt'ning which belongs to him, and he 
must keep each thing in its place. 

Personal neatness is really orderliness, and this, 
too, cannot be taught too early. Children natur- 
ally resent having their faces and hands washed 
too frequently, and it is absurd and wrong to 
expect them to be always clean and tidy; when 
they are playing they should not be bothered by 
having such things insisted on ; at the same time, 
there are hours when they should be tidy as a 
matter of course, especially when they come to 
the table for their meals. Then a mother must 
insist on having the hands washed and the hair 
smooth. This is always a trouble for both parent 
and child, but it need not be so difficult, if the 
child who comes clean gets the larger helping of 
dessert, and the one who has been forgetful gets 
but a small one. It is a lesson in orderliness not 
soon forgotten, and one far better taught in this 
way than by perpetual talking. 

As to training a child to keep the house in or- 
der outside his own room. that. too. must be en- 
forced. One has no right to throw down a cap, 
an armful of books, a pair of muddy rubbers, 
for someone else to put away, no matter if that 
someone is perfectly willing to do it. He has a 
duty to help keep the home attractive. But chil- 
dren are far too apt to think the common living- 
room theirs in the peculiar sense of disorder, and 
find it hard to remember to put away their be- 

6S 



i66 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



i| 



longings. Parents, too, are sometimes thought- 
less in not providing places which are convenient 
for out-of-door clothes and books. These places 
must be at hand — a closet with low hooks, a shelf 
for story-books, a box for rubbers, and something 
resembling the hymn-ibook rack at church, on some 
wall, for the books. Then after all these are 
ready the child must use them. 

One of the best ways to teach order here is to 
have it a good-natured rule that such things out 



of place will disappear. A lost cap will be found 
hidden in some out-of-the-way corner; a book 
will be discovered tucked under a chair-cushion, 
and so on. When one must take precious mo- 
ments to hunt up such things, it is probable that 
next time they will go where they belong. Here, 
as in one's own room, a mother should dwell on 1 
the selfishness of keeping the house in disorder, I 
and teach a child that he has no right to be 
careless. 



THREE-YEAR-OLD VIRTUES 



>l 



MARY L. READ 



EoRTUNATE now the child whose parents have the 
good sense to enjoy his prattlings and little tricks 
without yielding to the temptation to "show him 
off" before friends and neighbors. The sensitive 
child usually refuses to show off, and is made yet 
more self-conscious, shy, and bashful by the teas- 
ing, or threatening, or scolding, because of his 
refusal. The bolder child is made more aggres- 
sive, priggish, and intolerable by the applause and 
adulation shown him. which is as stimulating and 
wholesome for his soul as lollipops and soda- 
water for his body. 

During this year his program of motor-develop- 
ment, sense-training, habit-training, is to be con- 
tinued and made more definite; his exploration, 
experimenting, examining are to have a yet wider 
range; his speech is to be developed into sen- 
tences; he is to be drilled in orderliness and 
courtesy, in further stages of self-dependence, in 
dressing and feeding, in a sense of modesty, the 
observation of reverence, the practice of giving 
and the expression of gratitude. 

Training in Courage 

During the year fears often develop, of ani- 
mals, the dark, of imaginary monsters, of vague 
but horrifying dangers. Sometimes these are the 
direct result of tales told during this third year 
of ogres and monsters that will "eat him up" if 
he isn't good, of bogey men and cruel policemen. 
Such fears commonly leave their impression 
through life, and produce neurasthenia in adult- 
hood, when the definite childhood experience has 
been consciously forgotten. It is an unpardon- 
able offense thus to arouse fear in a little child. 

Once the damage has been done, it can never 
be undone. Parents can not be too careful for 
themselves and the associates that they permit 



with the child during these early years. Punish- 
ing a child by putting him in a dark closet or 
room, or threatening to do so, is a direct culti- 
vation of terror and fear. In the course of his 
life he will need all the courage and nervous 
vitality he can muster, and its cultivation can not 
begin too early. 

Bogeys, ogres, and villains are to be omitted 
from stories under six years, at least. He is to 
be taught the true purpose of the policeman, to 
protect him and his home from any harm. Pun- j 
ishment is to take some other and more natural i 
form. 

No suggestions of fear are to be made. Con- ' 
stant cautions of "Be careful," "Take care," "You | 
will hurt yourself," all suggest fear. Tumbles 
and bumps and bruises will come, of course, but 
instead of pitying him, asking him if he is hurt, 
calling him "Poor baby," teach him to be a brave 
child, not to cry, to be courageous like Father, 
and find something else to do so he will forget it. 

Training in Self-Reliance 

Self-reliance is also gained through his efforts 
to wait on himself. By two years he should be 
handling his cup neatly, learning to hold his bread 
or cracker over his tray so that the floor is not 
littered with crumbs, not handling his spoon with 
clumsiness and mishaps, but acquiring neatness 
even with this at the end of this year. 

He is now quite old enough to open his own 
bed to air, after his nap or in the morning, to put 
his shoes neatly together when they are taken off, 
hang up his hat, put his mittens away in his coat 
pocket or bureau, hang up his nightgown, lay 
his clothes neatly when undressed, put away his 
toys. This, of course, necessitates low hooks and 
shelves and a bureau drawer within his reach, a 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



167 



place for everything, a box or shelves for the 
toys. He can make efforts at washing his face 
and hands and brushing his teeth, not with the 
expectation that he can do it efficiently, but to 
cultivate the habit of doing for himself. He can 
put on his own clothes, although his fingers do 
not yet enable him to fasten them. 

Training in Modesty 

Personal modesty can be developed during this 
year. If this trait has been inherent in the per- 
sonality of his attendants up to this time, he has 
already absorbed it. Nudity in dressing and in 
bathing should always be treated sensibly, with- 
out self-consciousness, ridicule, or reproach. All 
the functions and processes of the body should 
be spoken of naturally and with respect. 

Children brought up with care are normally 
wholesome and innocent in their thought, and 
without sex consciousness. They can be kept so 
with even a modicum of wholesomeness and com- 
mon sense on the part of their elders. There are 
sometimes silly, shortsighted people who tease 
even little children about "beau.x" and "girls," and 
by their own foolish, simpering manner suBtly 
pervert the child's naturalness and cultivate pre- 
maturely and abnormally the child's sex con- 
sciousness. In all their games and play, their 
marching and dancing, their attention should not 
be called to sex differences, but they should be 
allowed to play and choose partners naturally. 
They should be taught to be equally courteous 
and helpful to all their playmates. 

Training in the Social Virtues 

If the children have the daily example of har- 
mony and courtesy between their mother and 



father, if they see that Father works hard to take 
care of them and Mother, and that Mother works 
hard to make them and Father comfortable and 
happy, they are already receiving their greatest 
lesson in the meaning of motherhood and father- 
hood — its social and spiritual meaning and its 
acceptance of responsibility in their care. Of 
course, they will not always analyze or con- 
sciously think this until many years later, but — 
far more important — it is becoming part of their 
subconscious ideal for their own lives. 

Father should never become to them the 
dreaded judge who will mete out wrath for child- 
ish wrongdoings. "I'll tell your father" should 
never become a threat. Rather reserve it for 
pleasant tales of good deeds, of discoveries and 
new accomplishments. Let them make something 
as a gift for Father because of all the things 
Father does for them all day. Let them bring 
Father's slippers, put a flower at his plate, bring 
him the paper. Teach them always to place a 
high value on Father's words of approval. Teach 
them to look up to him as their model and their 
best companion. 

From now; on the child enjoys greatly being 
with other children. Not that he begins playing 
games with them until four or five years. Not 
that he gets on peaceably with them, for quarrels 
and teasing may often develop. But he enjoys 
the social companionship, a colleague to talk with 
and share with. He needs this for his own soul's 
development. He should not have a crowd — that 
is too hard on his nerves until six or seven years. 
If there are no other young children in the family, 
some arrangement should be made for providing 
such companionship with one or two, at least 
during a few hours of each week, if not as a 
constant member of the household. 



Your strange task is so to act on your cliild as to make 
him think for himself. 

"Knowledge is organizing experience in terms of vital 
need." — Ernest Carroll Moore, 



THE TOYS 

My little Son, who look'd from tlioiiglitful eyea 

And moved and spoke in grown-up wise. 

Having my law the seventh time disobeyed, 

I struck him, and dismiss'd 

With hard words and unkiss'd. 

His Mother, who was patient, being dead. 

Then fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep, 

I visited his bed. 

But found him slumbering deep. 

With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet 

From his late sobbing wet. 

And I with a moan. 

Kissing away his tears left others of my own: 

For, on a table drawn beside his head, 

He had put, within his reach, 

A piece of glass abraded by the beach 

And six or seven shells, 

A bottle with bluebells 

And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art, 

To comfort his sad heart. 

So when that night I pray'd 

To God, I wept and said: 

Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath. 

Not vexing Thee in death. 

And Thou rememberest of what toys 

We made our joys, 

How weakly understood, 

Thy great commanded good. 

Then fatherly not less 

Than I whom Thou last molded from the clay, 

Thou'lt leave Thy wrath, and say, 

"I will be sorry for their childishness." 

— Coventry Patmore. 



SUMMARY AND FORECAST 



THE THIRD YEAR WITH TOM AND SARAH 



WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 



"heredity on both 
Probably it's their 
What are the new 



"I AM just discouraged," acknowledged Mary 
Howard, sinking flatly into her sewing-chair. 

"Don't be downhearted," chirruped her hus- 
band. "What seems to be the trouble?" 

"The twins have broken loose and I can't seem 
to manage them. And they used to be such angel- 
children," she meditated. 

"Well," Frank suggested, 
sides has to show some time, 
father cropping out in them, 
symptoms ?" 

"They get tired of their playthings, and they 
simply tag me around, and they're both stubborn 
as mules," was her breathless summary. 

"That last, of course, comes from the other side 
of the house !" 

"But I'm getting all tired out with them," she 
said wearily. 

"Now, Mary," soothingly suggested Mr. How- 
ard, "let me take hold a bit. If the 'system' is 
going to break down, suppose I spank them both." 

Just then the twins ran in and Sarah climbed 
up on one side of his chair, while Tom was ask- 
ing to be kissed, on the other. Their father's 
hard heart relented. 

"They don't seem to need a spanking just 
this minute," he confessed. "What do you want, 
Sarah ?" 

"Dada — play," was the instant response. So 
Father went into the library, gave them each a 
brisk ride on his knee, quieted them down with a 
basso profundo lullaby, undressed them awk- 
wardly and got them into bed. 

"Now, Mother," he said, in half an hour, "you 
can do the rest." 

"Thank you, Frank," she answered gratefully, 
and went into the bedroom and did — whatever 
mothers do to help two rollicking youngsters to 



want to go to sleep. She came back with better 
courage. 

"It is hard to hate them when they are in their 
nightgowns," was her husband's greeting. 

"Yes, it is," she granted. "Frank, I am to 
blame. I have been going ahead blindly lately, 
not realizing just how fast the children are de- 
veloping. While you were so kindly putting them 
to bed I took down my neglected charts again 
and did a little reading. It seems that ours are 
no worse than the neighbor's children " 

"I should say not" — with conviction. 

"And no different. You see, the twins are still 
in what somebody calls the vegetative stage " 

"Does that mean the 'vegetable' stage?" 

"Something like that. In other words, they 
haven't much imagination. They are not re- 
sourceful. They can't think up anything to do, 
and they never invent anything new to do with 
the old things. Then they are growing more 
sensitive to praise and blame and more dependent 
upon my sympathy. So they follow me around 
for ideas and company." 

"Does this last forever?" 

"No. It seems that some time during this very 
year we may expect them to "break into' imagi- 
nativeness. Then I guess they'll be easier to take 
care of." 

Tom and Sarah "Break Into" Imagina- 
tiveness 

The "break" occurred as suddenly as had been 
prophesied and rather earlier than Mrs. Howard 
expected. The family were over to Grandfather's 
to dinner one Sunday. After a time the children 
were missing. Mother went anxiously to hunt 
them up. She returned eagerly. 



169 



170 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



"Do come, everybody," she cried excitedly, "and 
see what Tom and Sarah are doing !" 

Everybody followed her out to the barn. The 
children were found, seated side by side on a box, 
covered partly with a blanket and each one hold- 
ing the end of a rein that dangled down from the 
harness that hung against the wall. They had 
often been allowed to "help Grandpa drive" when 
seated beside him in his carriage, and now they 
were carrying out the idea by themselves. 

"Smart youngsters !" was Grandfather's satis- 
fied comment. 

From that time forward, as Mrs. Howard had 
prophesied, the children became more resourceful 
and were easier to look after. All their play was 
not imaginative, even if it was inventive. Mrs. 
Howard was wise in furnishing only one toy at a 
time, and in trying to choose that one so as to 
have it within the reach of her children's interests 
and capacities, the playroom was simple almost 
to bareness, but it was a scene of much active 
endeavor. 

One day her neighbor, Caroline Walton, came 
in to call. She brought her daughter Jean, who 
was a few months older than the twins. Jean was 
a nervous creature, much overdressed, and very 
uncomfortable. 

"Jean is such a trouble to me," the mother com- 
plained, in her daughter's presence. "She requires 
so much looking after, and it is so hard to keep 
her clean." 

Just then the twins burst into the room, dressed 
in new rompers, with their small red hands sticky 
with mud and scattered islands of the same ma- 
terial on their cheeks. Mrs. Howard led them 
to the wash-basin. 

"I am afraid, Caroline, that I don't try as hard 
as I ought to keep mine clean. You know the old 
saying that dirt is healthy, and the other one to 
the effect that you have to eat so much of it be- 
fore you die. I am sure the twins are fed up 
with their allotment already." 

"Have they been playing out in the yard?" 
asked Mrs. Walton. 

"No; it looked so rainy this morning that I have 
had them in the house. Come into the nursery 
and let's see what they have been doing." 

The two ladies went into the playroom, a sunny 
place, with prettily figured wall paper and bright 
pictures hung low where the children could look 
into them. The floor had a dull filling, and in the 
center, on a square of oil-cloth, was a pile of mud. 

Mud-Pies in the Nursery 

"Playing with mud — in the house? Well, I 
never !" Mrs. Walton e.-cclaimed with uplifted 



hands. "Mary Howard, what are you thinking 
of?" 

"Why not?" Mrs. Howard asked calmly. "It 
is a warm day, and the mud isn't cold." 

"But it doesn't seem very — what shall I say? — 
ladylike," she said, with a glance from her Jean 
to Sarah's muddy nose. 

"No. Sarah isn't a lady — yet. She is only a 
little girl. I think she has a right to her child- 
hood as much as Tom, and so — " firmly — "I guess 
she's going to play in mud for a while. Just see 
what they are doing," she added more pleasantly. 

Already the youngsters, forgetful of their "com- 
pany," were squatted down on either side of the 
pile, making lines in the soft mud with their 
fingers, then patting it smooth again, sticking in 
stones and examining the patterns that they 
made, and so on. repeating their tasks with the 
deepest absorption. 

"How long have they been doing this?" 

"Ever since breakfast." 

"And now it's eleven o'clock. Why, I don't 
believe Jean ever played so long with anything in 
her life. Come, Mary," she said impulsively, "tell 
me all about it. Maybe I am on the wrong track. 
I just want to know what you are up to." 

Mrs. Howard knew that Mrs. Walton, though 
as decided in her views as herself, was just as 
earnest in her longing to bring up her only little 
one successfully, and she recognized too that she 
had a candid mind. So the two ladies sat down 
together in the adjoining dining-room, where they 
could keep near the children. 

"My books tell me," Mrs. Howard began, "that 
these are the j'ears of childhood for building up a 
good body, that children need a lot of air and 
sunshine and the freest kind of exercise. They 
tell me that they need to use the big muscles. So 
I dress them nearly all day in clothes that dirt 
won't hurt, and I keep them out whenever it is at 
all pleasant. They are fond of doing all sorts of 
things to get command of their hands and feet. 
I can see this because when I don't think up some- 
thing for this kind of activity they do themselves. 
They were the ones who thouglit of the mud and 
of the ladder." 

The Mysterious Charm of Ladders 

"The ladder? What ladder?" 

"Why, Frank happened to leave our long ladder 
lying on the lawn, and for days the children have 
spent hours walking up and down between the 
rungs, and last week they both began to try to 
walk along the squared sides. It has been just 
the finest thing to help them in balancing their 
bodies. But the funniest was the rolling down 
hill." 



FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD BIRTHDAY 



171 



"Rolling down hill? I never heard of such a 
thing!" 

"Neither did I. Tom started it, as he generally 
starts things. One morning he was sitting or 
lying on the ground by the syringa bush at the 
top of the little incline by the front door. Per- 
haps he lost his balance, but at any rate the ne.xt 
he knew he was rolling toward the bottom. At 
first he didn't know whether to cry or laugh, but 
after a moment he seemed to think it was worth 
trying again, and now it is the first regular morn- 
ing exercise for both of them." 

"They certainly are two healthy-looking chil- 
dren, more so than Jean. I wonder what she 
would say if I should offer her a mud-pie." 

Mrs. Walton did not need to wonder, for when 
she looked into the playroom half an hour later, 
her cherished daughter was in the mud up to her 
elbows and her hitherto spotless dress was a sight. 
She looked up in mingled glee and terror when 
she saw her mother, and her look was so funny 
that her mother, who was fortunate in having a 
sense of humor, burst out laughing. 

"I guess I have found a prescription for Jean," 
she said, turning to Mrs. Howard, "and a better 
one than a doctor's, too." 

The Little Girl that Spanking Doesn't 
Improve 

"Stubborn as mules," had been Mrs. Howard's 
verdict of her children early in the year. Before 
it drew to its close she often reiterated her state- 
ment, and usually added, "and oh, how they hate 
to obey." 

"But I notice that they generally do," her 
mother allowed. 

"I am grateful if you do notice it," was the 
daughter's response. "Almost every week now 
I have a regular tussle with their wills — or rather, 
their 'won'ts' — their contrariness. It is mostly, at 
least on Sarah's part, in wanting what Tom has, 
or in being unwilling to give up what she has 
more than her share of. The point seems to me 
to be to get her to give rather than to have to 
seize from her. I have waited as long as ten 
minutes — vi'hich is an age to a child — for her to 
decide to give something up." 

"Isn't there any quicker way?" 

"Of course there is — now. But would it be in 
the end? Every time I have spanked her I have 
declared that I would never do it again. It seems 
to rouse the worst passions in both of us. I don't 
believe I was made to spank righteously, and I 
am sure she wasn't made to be spanked to any- 
body's profit. With Tom it is different." 

"Have you ever tried giving just her fingers a 
quick snap with your middle finger? I don't be- 

K.N.— 13 



lieve it would irritate you or her, either, and when 
you were a baby it was very effective." 

"Thank you for that suggestion." 

Mrs. Howard had discovered that obedience 
was largely a matter of habit, and she practiced 
daily, not only in this field, but in many others, 
William James's famous "five laws" of habit-get- 
ting. Of these she considered the greatest to be, 
"Suffer no exceptions.'' She believed that if her 
children were never permitted to suppose that any 
way was possible but the right way, they would 
not only walk that way but prefer to walk it. Of 
course she appreciated that obedience is really 
only a temporary virtue, for the sake of the chil- 
dren's safety, but she was certain that they could 
not be safe unless they were dependable. 

■Watching the Moral Thermometer 

"I have been reading," she told her mother, 
"what Dorothy Canfield Fisher says about 'moral 
thermometers.' She thinks we parents ought to 
keep a sliding scale of our children's offenses, 
ranging from those that are devilish all the way 
up the scale through those that are partly bad, 
partly mistaken, and partly well-meaning, up to 
those that are good and perfect. / think we ought 
also to have a thermometer for the children them- 
selves — a scale of their condition as well as their 
conduct, because I am sure there are some days 
that even the good Lord doesn't count against 
them." 

"Why, Mary, what do you mean?'' 

"Days when they are just tired, or languid, or 
are coming down with something. I quite agree 
with that wise mother who determined that she 
would never ask anything hard after four o'clock 
in the afternoon. It seems to me that there are 
two kinds of misbehavior that are likely to hap- 
pen when the children are out-of-sorts — one is 
carelessness and the other is what Frank calls 
'cussedness'; one is because they are too tired to 
start and the other is because they are too tired 
to stop." 

"Very good !" exclaimed Mrs. Spencer. "I well 
remember both kinds. But what you have been 
saying reminds me, Mary, of something I wanted 
to ask you. You know our neighbor Mrs. Colwell, 
and you know how insistent she is upon what she 
calls 'unquestioning, implicit obedience.' I know 
you are pretty particular when a real issue comes 
up to see that Tom and Sarah mind, but I have 
never heard you harping upon these particular 
adjectives." 

"Mother, you have struck a sort of sore spot 
with me. I don't know just what I do think aliout 
that. If a child always obeys implicitly, and with- 
out question, wouldn't you think there was some- 



172 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



thing the matter with him? Mustn't he be anemic 
or weak-minded or weak-willed or something? I 
remember that Charlotte Perkins Oilman once 
said that such a child, grown up, would be per- 
fectly valueless as a citizen. Now Tom and 
Sarah have this year begun to seem to have in- 
dividualities of their own ; you can see that in the 
way each one begins to cling to his own posses- 
sions and to want his own way. For the present 
they obey me, when I am firm and careful, be- 
cause I insist upon it and because it is a good 
habit with them, but if I am not mistaken, the time 
is going to come, and come pretty soon, when they 
will asR questions — and have a right to ask them, 
too." 

"What will you do then, my dear?" 
"Answer them, I suppose, if I have breath 
enough." 

"If you have the answers, don't you mean?" 
"Yes, Mother, that is what I do mean. I can 
see that in requiring obedience even now I must 
be reasonable even when I don't have to gk'c 
reasons, but it won't be long before they will 
ask for reasons, and if I want their obedience to 
be intelligent and cheerful, I must have good 
^reasons to give." 

The Year's Inventory 

When Frank and Mary sat down to make their 
annual "Inventory," Frank took the pencil, be- 
cause, as he said, "you can think it up, and I can 
put it down." 

"Let's take the old things first." 
"All right. Where shall we begin?" 



"With health." 

" 'Health — fine. Good resistance to disease.' 
Is that correct?" 

"Very good. Now the senses." 
Frank scribbled down a list : 



Sight 
Taste 



Smell 
Hearing 



Touch 



After some discussion this was the way the 
schedule was filled out: 

"Sight — range greater. 
Taste — more sensitive. 
Smell — ditto. 

Hearing — can recognize a tune. 
Touch — keen ; great delight in handling things." 

"Now let's take up some of the new things," 
suggested Frank. 

To make the story short, they finally made out 
this list, which, if miscellaneous, was, neverthe- 
less, suggestive, and, as they both agreed, en- 
couraging: 

New Things in Tom and Sarah 

1. Voluntary recollection. 

2. Accurate use of words. 

3. Real purpose in their actions. 

4. Resourcefulness in their play. 

5. Self-assertion (mighty!). 

6. Contrariness (by spells). 

7. Courage. 

8. Loyalty to little "responsibilities." 



"A house of dreams untold. 
That looks out over the whispering treetops 
And faces the setting sun." 

— Edward MacDowell. 



INDEX TO 

From the Second to 



Adult interference, 131 
Affection, 135 
Art. 152 

Attainments. 118. 141 
Attention, 125 

Baby's toilet. 162 

Companionship. 119. 128. 131. 157 
Conscience. 136 
Consequences, 132 
Coordination of muscle, 148 
Courage, 166 

Daily time-table. 122. 161 
Discipline, 122 
Drudgery, 137 

Experiment. 127 

Father's handicraft. 149 
Fatigue. 120 
Fidgetiness, 121 
Food, 120 

Growth. 120, 121 

Habits. 121. 125. 165 
Height. 120 
Helpfulness. 161 
Home-made playthings. 149 

Imaginativeness, 118, 126, 130, 169 
Imitation. 130 
Interest. 127 
Irritability, 122 

Judgment, 126 

Language, 129 

Make-believe, see Imaginativeness 
Memory. 125. 151 
Mental development, 124 
Modesty, 167 



SUBJECTS 
the Third Birthday 

Moral thermometer. 171 

Mother. The. 119 

Motive. 159 

Muscular development, 120, 148 

Needs of third year, 118 
Nursery instruction, 123 
Nursery school, 158 

Obedience, 122, 134. 159 
Orderliness. 136. 165 
Outdoor life, 145 

Pens. 145 

Physical development. 120, 121 

Play apparatus, 123, 149 

Playmates. 119 

Praise. 164 

Reason. 126 
Records. 124 
Rewards. 137. 164 

Sand box. The. 145 

Self. 118 

Self-expression. 146 

Self-reliance. 166 

Selfishness. 132 

Sleep. 120 

Social development, 131. 167 

Spanking. 171 

Strain. 125 

Structure of the child. 120 

Talks, 128 

Third-year inventory, 172 

Tidiness, 136. 165 

Unlovable children. 160 
Unselfishness. 132. 135 

Virtues of third year, 166 

Weights, 120 



INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS 

From the Second to the Third Birthday 



Action plays, 144 
^olian harp, 156 

Baby yard. The. 144 
Ball plays, 124, 143 
Blocks, 124, 150 
Books, 147 
Boxes, 124 
Building, 124 

Chimes, 156 
Clay, 145 
Cleanings, 162 
Climbing, 124 
Color play, 147 

Digging, 25 

Dramatic plays, 130, 144 

Dressing, 161 

Exercise, 121, 145 
Experimenting, 127 

Games, 143 

Kiddie-car, 124 

Ladders, 149 

Manipulation, 124 
Memorizing, 152 
Movement play, 122, 143 
Mud pies, 170 
Music, 147, 155 



Neighborhood nursery, 158 

Outdoor play, 121 
Outdoor work, 163 

Physical activities, 122, 123 

Pictures, 128, 147, 152 

Play with water, 145 

Plays, 122, 124, 127, 143, 146, 170 

Plays of the senses, 143 

Playthings, 123, 146 

Poems, 128 

Preparing breakfast, 163 

Retelling stories, 129 
Rhymes, 128, 147, 152, 163 
Rhythm, 129 

Sell-directed play, 122, 124, 127, 146, 170 

Sense plays, 143 

Songs, 156 

Speech, 129 

Stories, 128, 151, 153 

Swinging, 124, ISO 

Talking machine. 156 
Tools, 148, 164 
Toys, see Playthings 

Walking, 123 
Walks, 128 
Washing dishes, 162 
Work, 161, 162 
Writing, 148 



FROM THE 

THIRD TO THE SIXTH 

BIRTHDAY 



'THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD" 







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'nr^HE so-called "regular kindergarten gifts" and "ocaipations" are a dozen in 
number. They consist chiefly of certain blocks of wood in geometrical forms, 
such as the sphere, the cylinder, the cube, the divided cube, the divided cylinder, 
parquetry tablets, sticks for stick-laying in patterns, and papers for drawing, per- 
forating, embroidering or sewing. In Froebel's philosophy, which was an intricate 
one, these gifts and occupations were symbols of correspondences in the world of 
thought and material things; they were introductions to the mastery of geometrical 
forms, and they were also playthings. To-day even the most loyal Froebelian is 
careful not to overemphasize their value as compared with the greater values of free 
play and constructive handicraft, while the modern kindergartner is somewhat im- 
patient with a philosophy which has meaning to the teacher rather than to the child 
and with "gifts" that are needless symbols of real objects and occupations that are 
right at hand, available for use, and that as playthings are nowhere as good as 
other playthings for the child's development. Some of the "gifts" are also objec- 
tionable as requiring eye-strain and the use of finer manipulations than are desirable 
for small fingers. The blocks, somewhat enlarged, are still retained, and are con- 
stantly referred to in The Manual, though not mentioned as formal "gifts." 

The books of such careful interpreters of Froebel as the late Susan E. Blow 
iare still available to mothers who are wiUing to master the Froebelian psychology 
and terminology and method, but for the mother's purpose it has seemed better 
to present here that which is permanent and universal in Froebel— his love for and 
sympathy with children, his insistence that they must be studied and companioned 
with if we are to understand and guide them aright, and his hearty purpose that 
they should not only be brought close to the world of work and action but that they 
should enter that world with the intent and will to make it a more lovely and friendly 
world. The articles in The Manual upon kindergarten ideals and practice, as they 
are read, will make even more clear to the reader that Froebel still has his place at 
the heart of the kindergarten movement, but that another age and another land and 
other teachers have immensely enriched and enlarged the kindergarten. It is an 
interesting and perhaps a significant fact that not in Germany, which country has 
never adopted its own homeborn kindergarten into its official educational system, 
but in America has the kindergarten become the very foundation stone of child 
training. 



174 



CONTENTS 

The Course of Training p^^.. 

Looking Forward Through This Period William Byron Fnrhush 177 

A Child's Development and Training the Fourth, Fifth, 

and Sixth Years Mrs. Bertha Payne Xewell 183 

Charts ". 256, 257, 258, 259 

What an Average Child May Be Ahle to Do by the 

End of This Period Naomi Norsworthy 260 

A 'Round-the-Year Program The Committee on Curriculum of the In^ 

tcrnational Kindergarten Union 260 

What to Expect from the Third to the Sixth Birthhav 

Richard's Day fredcrica Beard 267 

The Fifth Year Mary L. Read ~ . . 268 

What a Child is Like the Sixth Year Mary L. Read 271 

The Dawn of Independence 4lma S. Sheridan 274 

What to Do from the Third to the Sixth Birthday 

Our Home Gymnasium Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Bonsall 277 

Gymnastic Plays for This Period Mrs. Harriet Hickox Heller 282 

Lively Imitative Plays The Editors 284 

Plays and Games for the Fourth Year Luella A. Palmer 285 

Aims and Methods in Constructive Play The Committee on Curriculum of the In- 
ternational Kindergarten Union 287 

Beginnings in Handwork Mrs. Minnetta Sammis Leonard 288 

The Importance of Self-Help Maria Montessori 294 

Collecting Nature Materials Katherine Beebe 295 

Bead-Stringing Mrs. Carrie S. Newman 298 

"The Holy Gift of Color" Elizabeth Harrison 300 

Suggestions for Color- Play The Editors 302 

The Music Needs of the Kindergarten Calvin B. Cady 305 

Music for the Early Years Mary E. Pennell 308 

Some Play-Devices in Beginning Music Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Bonsall 319 

How to Tell Stories Mary L. Read 326 

The Selection of Stories for Kindergarten Children Annie E. Moore 326 

Fifty Best Kindergarten and Primary Stories 328 

The Poetry Habit Clara Whitehill Hunt 329 

Answering Questions About Sex Margaret W. Morlcy 331 

The Religious Nurture of a Little Child William Byron Forbush 332 

The Religious Education of a Catholic Child Josephine Brozmson 338 

Tlie Religious Education of a Jewish Child Mrs. Rose Barlow Weinman 341 

Plays and Games for the Fifth Year Luella A. Palmer 349 

Self-Making Susan E. Blow 354 

Constructive Play Grace L. Brown 355 

Things to Make Out of Newspapers Mrs. Louise H. Peck 364 

The Beginnings of Art for Little Children Walter Sargent 365 

How the Cliild May Express Himself Through Art The Committee on Curriculum of the In- 
ternational Kindergarten Union 366 

Pictures for the Home Julia Wade Abbott 369 

Learning to Use Language The Committee on Curriculum of the In- 
ternational Kindergarten Union 370 

Mother, Father, and Child— Partners Three Maud Burnham 373 



176 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



PACE 

The Home Play-Yard Mrs. Dora Ladd Keyes 374 

Playthings Which the Father Can Make William A. McKeever, LL.D., and Jean 

Lee Hunt 375 

Plays and Games for the Sixth Year Ltiella A. Palmer 377 

Play with Dolls The Editors 382 

An Introduction to Nature Study Jessie Scott Himes 384 

Betty's Nature Friends Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard Bonsall 391 

Play with Neglected Senses The Editors 401 



Summary and Forecast 

Tom and Sarah During the Kindergarten Years William Byron Forhush 

What Should a Child Know When He Enters the 

First Grade ? //• G. Wells 

At the Schoolhouse Door Elisabeth J. Wood-ward . 



405 

409 
412 



Supplemental Articles 

Home Correctives for the Kindergarten Maximilian E. P. Gros=mann, Pd.D 417 

The Kindergarten Years Irving E. Miller 419 

Freedom of Experiment in the Kindergarten Frank M. McMurry. Ph.D 422 

The Trend of the Kindergarten To-day Patty Smith Hill 425 

The Kindergarten at Horace Mann School, Teachers 

College John Walker Harrington 427 

Froebel and the Kindergarten of To-day G. Stanley Hall, LL.D 429 

What Has the American Kindergarten to Learn from 

Montessori? William Heard Kilpatrick, Ph.D 432 

Making the Original Nature of the Child into Some- 
thing Else Edward L. Thorndike. Ph.D 434 

What is the Value of Play? Luella A. Palmer 435 

Experiment, Imitation, Repetition and Purpose Luella A. Palmer 436 

Ten Useful Purposes in Kindergarten Training Luella A. Palmer 437 

Index to Subjects Facing 440 

Index to Occupations Facing 440 






■i^ 





THE COURSE OF TRAINING | 

LOOKING FORWARD THROUGH THIS PERIOD 

Dear Mothers and Teachers: 

Mrs. Bertha Payne Newell, who was formerly at the head of the Depart- 
ment of Kindergarten Education at the University of Chicago, and who is one 
of the most eminent elementary teachers in this country, meets us for the first 
time this year and takes us along with her for the next few years of our journey. 
Her suggestions have been worked out with her own children and her neigh- 
bors' children, as well as in the schoolroom. 

As you glance through the Table of Contents, showing the rich resources 
placed at your disposal for this important period, you need perhaps to be reminded 
that you do not have to read or use the whole of it at one time. The next few sen- 
tences will show you just how to proceed. 

How TO Master the Course for This Period 

You wall note that this period comprises three years, and that in the special 
Contents on the preceding page the articles for the period are divided into three 
sections, one for each year. You, of course, have to do with only one year at a 
time, but as some children are more advanced than others, it seemed wise to group 
the three years so that no mother would miss any of this valuable material. Some 
of the material applies to all the three years. For example, no mother will wish 
to omit the important articles on religious education, which are classified in the 
fourth year. 

Your best method will be to proceed as follows: 

First, read Mrs. Newell's chapters, and those by the editors and others 
which are in the same series, one by one from the beginning to the end. Get 
the viewpoint. Make the earnest effort to decide about where your own child 
is to be graded, mentally, and which of the suggestions are best suited to his 
development. 

177 



178 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Second, go over carefully the "Round-the-Year Program," and make up 
roughly a similar one for your own work, season by season, modifying it later 
according to circumstances. 

Third, "Plan your Work and Work your Plan." Having made your pro- 
gram and having decided just how Mrs. Newell is to guide you, use this Reading 
Journey below as the basis of your work. Whenever you make use of one of 
the articles in the first column, take up the other readings in the columns 
opposite. 



A Child's Di'Z'clopment and 

Training the Fourth, Fifth, 

and Sixth Years 

THE FOURTH YEAR 

I. The Physical Life in 
the Fourth Year 



II. How the Child Plays 
the Fourth Year 

III. Building-Plays 

IV. Making Cakes and 

Other Models 

V. Playing in Sand 

VI. The Montessori Meth- 
ods in the Home. (By 
M. V. O'Shea) 

VH. The Instinct for Col- 
lecting 

VIII. Stringing Beads 

IX. Drawing and Coloring 



X. Music and Rhythm 



Companion Articles in this Manual 



"Richard's Day" 
"Our Home Gymnasium" 
"Gymnastic Plays for This Period" 
"Lively Imitative Plays" 

"Plays and Games for the Fourth Year" 



"Aims and Methods in Constructive Play" 
"Beginnings in Handwork" 

"Beginnings in Handwork" 



"The Importance of Self-Help" 



"Collecting Nature-Materials" 



"Bead-Stringing" 

"The Holy Gift of Color" 
"Suggestions for Color-Play" 
"Beginnings in Handwork" 

"The Music-Needs of the Kindergarten" 
"Some Play-Devices in Beginning Music" 



XI. Literature for Kinder- 
garten Children. (Ar- 
ranged by the Edi- 
tors) 

XII. When the Children Ask 
Questions. (By the 
Editors) 

XIII. The Religion of a Lit- 
tle Child 



"How to Tell Stories" 

"The Selection of Stories for Kindergarten 

Children" 
"The Poetry Habit" 

"Answering Questions about Sex" 



"The Religious Nurture of a Little Child" 
'Religious Education of a Catholic Child" 
"Religious Education of a Jewish Child" 



Companion Articles in the 
"Boys and Girls Bookshelf" 



Indoor Games, vol. IV, page 3 
Outdoor Sports, vol. IV, page 
65 



Color — Design — Drawing, vol. 
IV, page 171 



Play and Work for the Sum- 
mer Vacation, vol. IV, page 
291 



Color — Design — Drawing, vol. 
IV, page 171 



Nursery Songs and Mother 

Goose, vol. VI, page IS 
Play Songs, vol. VI, page 33 
Songs of a Young Child's 

Day, vol. VI, page 49 
Folk Songs, vol. VI, page 71 
Nature Songs, vol. VI, page 
105 



Stories in vols. I, II, and III 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



179 



A Child's Development and 

Training the Fourth, Fifth, 

and Sixth Years 

THE FIFTH YEAR 

XIV. Developments dur- 
ing the Fifth Year 

XV. How the Child 
Plays the Fifth 
Year 



Companion Articles in this Manual 



"The Fifth Year" 

"The Dawn of Independence" 

"Plays and Games for the Fifth Year" 



XVI. Building-Plays 

XVII. Hammer and Nails 

XVIII. Making Things Out 
of Paper 

XIX. Modeling 

XX. Pictures and Paint- 

ing 



XXI. Talking with and 
Helping Mother 



XXII. Outdoor Life. Pets, 
and Gardening 



THE SIXTH YEAR 

XXIII. Developments dur- 

ing the Sixth 
Year 

XXIV. Making Doll-Furni- 

ture 

XXV. Weaving 

XXVI. Making Doll-Dress- 
es 

XXVII. Modeling 
XXVIII. Nature Study 



XXIX. More Easy Con- 
structive Play 

XXX. Festivals 

XXXI. Governing Childreti 
(By Mrs. Eunice 
Barstow Buck) 



"Self- Making" 
"Constructive Play" 



"Things to Make Out of Newspapers" 



"The Beginnings of Art for Little Chil- 
dren" 

"Outlines for Early Art Study" 

"How Children May Express Themselves 
Through Art" 

"Constructive Play" 

"Pictures for the Home" 

"Learning to Use Language" 

"Mother, Father and Child- 
Partners Three" 

"The Home Play-Yard" 

"Playthings Which the Father Can 
Make" 



"What a Child is Like the Sixth Year" 
"Plays and Games for the Sixth Year" 

"Plavs with Dolls" 



"Plays with Dolls" 



"An Introduction to Nature Study" 
"Betty's Nature Friends" 
"Play with Neglected Senses" 



"Constructive Play" 



Companion Articles in the 
"Boys and Girls Bookshelf" 



Indoor Games, vol. IV, page .3 

Puzzles and Problems, vol. IV, 
page 19 

Riddles, Charades, and Conun- 
drums, vol. IV, page 39 

Outdoor Sports, vol. IV, page 

■ 65 

Woodwork, vol. IV, page 215 
Paper-craft, vol. IV, page 155 



Picture Stories, vol. VI, page 
177 



The Garden, vol. IV, page 135 

Pets and How to Care for 
Them, vol. VIII, page 7 



Dolls and Costumes of Many 
Nations, vol. IV, page 110 



The Little Mother's Work- 
basket, vol. IV, page 75 



Little Nature Lessons, vol. 

VII, page 1 
Stories of the Seasons, vol. 

VII. page 15 
Lurking to Look About You, 

vol. VII, page 33 

Woodwork, vol. IV, page 215 

Happy Days All 'Round the 
Year, vol. IV, page 268 



"Tom and Sarah During the Kindergarten 

Year" 
"What Should a Child Know When He 

Enters the First Grade?" 
"At the Schoolhouse Door" 



i8o THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

\Vc wish to direct the attention of our readers also to the very valuable 
series, practically a year's course in itself, entitled "Around the Year with Caro- 
lyn Sherwin Bailey," in the second volume of our Child Welfare Manual. 
Miss Bailey is one of our best known story-tellers and writers on kindergarten 
methods. 

Remember, in all your teaching, that you are to be guided most of all not 
by what even so wise a woman as Mrs. Newell has found useful, but by your 
own child's interests. Look up the "Chart of Child Study and Child Training" 

on page and note how it is arranged. The first column is headed "The 

Child's Responses," the second, "What They Suggest." You will find here 
many of your own child's responses interpreted for you. You will discover 
in yovir own child other responses, and this chart will help you think out 
what they suggest for you to do. 

For the mother who wishes something more than playful devices, who 
desires to know why she does what she is doing and how she may do it better, 
the Editors have selected with considerable care the following short articles by 
leading educational authorities of to-day, which they hope will be read, early 
and often, by the mothers whose children are in the kindergarten years. 

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS 

The Kindergarten Years Irving E. Miller, Pli.D. 

Freedom of Experiment in the Kindergarten Frank M. McMnrry, Ph.D. 

The Trend of the Kindergarten To-Day Patty Smith Hill 

The Kindergarten at Horace Mann School John Walker Harrington 

Froebel and the Kindergarten of To-Day G. Stanley Hall, LL.D. 

Home Correctives for the Kindergarten Maximilian E. P. Groszmann. Pd.D. 

What Has the American Kindergarten to Learn from Montessori? William Heard Kilpatrick, Ph.D. 

Making the Original Nature of the Child into Something Else Edward L. Thorndike, Ph.D. 

\^'hat is the Value of Play? Luella A. Palmer 

Experiment, Imitation, Repetition and Purpose Luella A. Palmer 

Ten Useful Purposes of Kindergarten Training Luella A. Palmer 

These experts have expressed themselves with remarkable simplicity. It is 
suggested that the mother read with pencil in hand, underlining each statement 
that strikes her as significant, and even copying phrases that she desires to 
recall. 

Dr. Miller gives us a comprehensive view of the whole period, which binds 
together the scattered studies of Mrs. Newell, Miss Read, and others. 

The next three articles furnish the viewpoints of those who are doing" 
such suggestive work in the kindergarten of the Horace Mann School at Teach- 
ers College, Columbia University, work that means more to the practicing 
mother just now than that of any other institution in the country. 

President G. Stanley Hall shows us how the new connects with the old, 
how the modern kindergarten is true to Frocbel's principles, yet is liberated 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY i8l 

from much that was unimportant or useless that has been added by some of his 
disciples. Dr. Groszmann goes even a step farther, and shows how a mother in 
her home-teaching may avoid some of those cramping methods that have crept 
into many public kindergartens. 

Dr. Kilpatrick explains what that much-exploited modern educational philos- 
opher, Doctor jNIontessori, has given us, and also explains what we are not 
to learn from her example. 

The last four papers are thoughtful discussions of the philosophy of child- 
teaching; they tell us why we are doing what we do. These epigrammatic 
sentences are like nuggets of gold, which the mother must beat into shape for 
rich use in her daily teaching and companionship with her children. 

Readings in Religious Education 

During these years, when the child is sensitive to and curious about religious 
matters, and in the course of which the majority of children begin to attend 
Sunday-school, it will be wise to read, gradually and in order, all the articles 
in the series entitled "Moral and Religious Education," at the end of the 
Manual. These will have especial cogency if studied in close connection with 
the three papers on religious education in this division. 

What to Expect During This Period 

In contrasting the attainments of this period with those of the third year, 
two things are to be remembered: all children do not develop alike, and some of 
these statements may apply to your child earlier or later than as indicated in 
one of the columns below : 

ATTAINMENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR ATTAINMENTS OF THE FOURTH TO SIXTH YEAR 

Greater control and much use of the trunk muscles. Firmer muscular control; possible tendency to fa- 
tigue before sixth year. 
Better manipulation of toys and tools. Definite constructive ideas, but no ability yet to 

handle fine tools ; interest in the action more 
than the result. 
Trial now not blind, but to find out how things Trial not only to find how things act, but to recon- 

act. struct and change them. 

Imitation now not only of literal acts but of pur- Imitation now of other children fully as much as 

poses of others. of adults. 

Keener susceptibility of the senses. Sense-susceptibility complete, and giving place to 

• motor-interests. 

Speech ; sentence-forming. Large vocabulary, and understanding of many 

words he does not use himself. 
Voluntary memory, but not continuous. Memory now voluntary and continuous. 

Actions based on more thorough reasoning. Actions based constantly on reasoning from cause 

to eiifect. 
Self-assertion develops into contrariness. Contrariness may extend even to rebelliousness. 

Curiosity constant, expressed by incessant ques- Curiosity expressed still by questions, and also by 
tions. all sorts of experiments. 



i82 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

ATTAINMENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR ATTAINMENTS OF THE FOURTH TO SIXTH YEAR 

Play more resourceful and self-directed. Play, still self-directed, but not now so solitary; 

enjoyment of playmates. 

Imagination now constructive and fanciful. Imagination even more lively, both passive, in en- 

joying fairy stories, and active, in dramatic 

play- 
Noticeable aftection and sympathy. Affection less demonstrative, but for more persons. 

Influenced now by persons outside his home ; be- 
ginnings of hero-worship. 

Spontaneous and lively religious feelings. 

All the statements in the second column suggest that your child now has 
passed definitely and fully into the Individual Stage, the period when he is 
strongly independent, often wilful, and is capable of being trained to express his 
own nature as never before. The responses that he now makes to every situa- 
tion are more significant than ever of what he can do and be, and in every sug- 
gestion that Mrs. Newell and others make, we are to remember that we are 
dealing with our child, and not Mrs. Newell's children, and our child may 
answer where hers were silent, or refuse to respond where she obtained 
responses from hers. In other words, personality may now be discovered. We 
are beginning to discover what are the strong points possessed by our offspring. 
Let us watch carefully. Is he reticent but determined? Or impulsive and self- 
revealing? Is he likely to express himself best through his fingers, or his voice., 
or his general energy? Does he seem to need many suggestions, or is he 
resourceful? Have we oversuggested, and do we need to bring him into situa- 
tions that will call forth his self-reliance? Or have we neglected to watch his 
impulses, and do we now need to furnish him with more materials and oppor- 
tunities and suggestions for bringing out his latent powers? "These are some of 
the questions that should be in our minds throughout this important kinder- 
garten period. 

Whether he goes to a public kindergarten or is wholly trained at home, we 
shall find that for the first time our child needs and desires playmates of his 
own age, and is influenced by them even more than by ourselves. This yield- 
ing to outside impressions, of course, broadens his character and ability, but 
brings its own special anxieties and requires special safeguards. 

William Byron Forbush. 




PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, FOURTH TO FIFTH YEAR 



A CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING THE 
FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH YEARS 



MRS. BERTHA PAYNE NEWELL 



n 



FOURTH YEAR 






I. THE PHYSICAL LIFE IN THE FOURTH YEAR 



The three-year-old is in the full swing of his 
play-life. His pliysical activity is incessant: 
running, climbing, leaping, crawling, rolling, 
tumbling, balancing. He needs ample oppor- 
tunity for this kind of exercise. He simply 
must let off the surplus energy in these ways. 
It is as important for his mental as for his bodily 
vigor. A child who is not abounding in activity 
at this age is in some way below par and needs 
attention. 

Further, this is the method Nature prompts for 
giving him control of his body. 

One of the first requisites is space, and freedom 
to use it, be it only a porch or a small yard. 

Incentives to definite and varied exercises 
come next. Some of the best are : a ladder or 
tree with low branches to climb, a seesaw, a 
swing, a trapeze for swinging by the arms, a 
large ball or bean-bag for throwing. A scantling 
or a "two-by-four" laid upon the ground or on 
bricks gives a balancing exercise similar to '"rail- 
walking." 

One must not be too cautious nor foolhardy in 
allowing climbing and other feats. I remember 
the effort with which I restrained my fears when 
my three-year-old was discovered half way up a 
twelve-foot ladder that leaned against an oak tree. 
She went carefully to the top and down again, not 
aware of her mother's anxiety. Children who are 
allowed to do these things are more sure because 
they have measured their own strength and they 
gain skill that prevents accidents. Some of the 
worst falls come from sudden access of timidity 



in a child who has not tested his power often 
enough. 

Climbing a slanting ladder is good exercise for 
the muscles of back, arms, and legs. Children at 
this age are still heavy-bodied in proportion to 
the length of arms and legs ; this makes them able 
to climb and swing where both arms and legs are 
employed. Crawling and creeping, too, divide 
the body-weight between legs and arms, and are 
good exercise. On the other hand, the shortness 
of legs and weight of body and head makes a 
long walk or continued standing very fatiguing 
to two and three-year-old children. We can not 
measure their effort by our own, or by the length 
of time consumed in walking. What is a short 
walk for the light-bodied, long-legged adult re- 
quires much greater muscular effort in proportion 
from the differently proportioned child. 

Games that are good for older children are 
for the same reason not always good for the 
three-year-old. Few three-year-old children, for 
example, can skip on both feet alternately ; a skip 
on the right and a long step with the left is the 
approach they make to it. Walking and run- 
ning, jumping and skipping in short periods are 
good. 

Frequent change of position is a necessity. 
Long-continued sitting even in well-adapted kin- 
dergarten chairs is wearisome. I have found no 
place so good as the floor for all kinds of play, 
where they can sprawl, kneel, sit cross-legged or 
lie on face or back at will. Here they can build, 
model, draw, or cut as long as the spirit wills. 



183 



l84 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



II. HOW THE CHILD PLAYS DURING THE FOURTH YEAR 



The approach of the third birthday brings a 
change in the character of a child's play that 
has already been recognized by Mrs. Sies, and 
provided for by heT in suggestions for the com- 
panionship of mother and child in play. This 
change marks the entrance of a child to the real 
play-period of growth. Before it began, objects 
were of interest for their sensory qualities and 
for what could he done with them: hats were to 
put on heads, sticks were to strike with, pans to 
put things in or to make a noise when beaten, 
and so on. When the objects have become fa- 
miliar, and the child has learned how they behave 
under his manipulations, he begins to find a new 
world in them, a world of his own creation. 

A hat is now turned into a cradle for a doll, 
the stick becomes a galloping horse, the pan is a 
boat sailing on a carpet sea. The changes re- 
quired demand little or nothing in the -way of 
making over. Some likeness is discovered and 
seized upon. Things acquire different meanings. 
These discoveries, exploited, constitute play. 
From now on, play becomes the vital engrossing 
activity of a little child's waking hours. 

Play Demands Recognition and 
Companionship 

These discoveries of new meanings and uses 
in old things are so vivid that children must share 
their pleasure in them with others. Mother is 
called on fifty times a day to see some wonderful 
adaptation of "something old to something new." 
Since it all means the e.xpansion of ideas, we are 
glad to welcome this play of ideas and to leave 
our work for minutes or half hours to join in the 
fun. And yet "fun" does not describe a child's 
feeling for this creative play; to him it is serious, 
more like the scientist's quiet joy in finding a new 
specimen.* 

Mothers sometimes complain that their children 
at this age do not play so much with their toys as 
with other things not meant for toys. One mother 
said her boy of three preferred above all things 
the kitchen utensils, probably for the reason that 
they offered such fine suggestions for this kind 
of play. 

Dramatic Play Keeps Pace with 
Physical 

"Papers?" The call comes in a high treble. I 
turn to the door and see Billy in his brother's cap 



• Tn connection with these statements it will be helpful to 
read Dr. Irving E. Miller's longer article on "The Kinder- 
garten Years," page 419 of this Manual. 



carrying a pack of old newspapers under his arm. 
Of course, I buy a paper, paying for it with an 
imaginary coin ; but the paper must actually 
change hands, no pretense will do. I tell him he 
may sell one to my neighbor next door. When 
he returns the idea has undergone a change. 
Stumbling over the little wagon suggests that 
this be substituted, and so the round begins again. 
On the table stands a call-bell — now a new idea 
enters and takes command. The wagon no longer 
carries papers. The bell becomes a clanging gong 
and I am ordered to "get out of the way quick, 
the fire-wagon is coming!" 

Acting is as natural a mode of expressing 
ideas to children at this age as talking. Often 
it can express what he has no words to tell. Be 
interlocutor for him at times. Play the part, and 
voice what he is trying to embody. Be the "other 
fellow" of all dramas, saying not too much, to 
usurp the creator's chief part, and yet enough to 
give reality to the scene. 

Change of Plays 

Play is now so much a matter of responding to 
the suggestiveness of things that the play lasts 
often but a short time and is supplanted by an- 
other, as just indicated. This shifting of subject 
is perhaps Nature's way of keeping the immature 
brain from being overworked. One set of cells 
is fatigued by the activity involved in one kind of 
action, just as one set of muscles is in gymnastic 
play. A ready response to new suggestions means 
that a different set is brought into action, both 
of brain-cells and muscles. The older child is 
capable of more sustained action and his periods 
of attention to one thing are notably longer. 

If you watch a three-year-old child at play you 
will notice this shifting of attention, sometimes 
to entirely different plays, and sometimes to a 
different way of dealing with his toy or subject. 

Play is "Just Choosing" 

I wonder how many people realize, as they 
watch children at play, what a large part choosing 
has in the charm. I remember seeing a little niece 
roll a small matting rug, and holding it in her 
arms, say to her mother, "See, Mamma, my baby." 
Then, unrolling it with a swift shake, "Now baby 
is gone: this is my rug." She seemed to be en- 
joying the consciousness that she was the maker 
of that doll-creature and could unmake as well as 
make. Moreover, this power of doing and un- 
doing must be exhibited and win its proper social 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



i8s 



recognition. What artist is there who can long 
live his art alone ? 

So the power of choice is the element in real 
play .that makes it different and gives it value to 
the player. Perhaps that explains a puzzling act 
of which this is an illustration. A pupil of mine 
in the Normal School said, "Why is it that a little 
farm-boy who has to plow all day will amu,=.e him- 
self by driving a stick-horse or another boy when 
his day's work is over?" Choice and illusion were 
cramped all day, and at nightfall they cut loose, 
as it were, in the very field in which they had 
been held prisoners. 

Play Extends Meanings 

Probably the sense of being a creator is as vivid 
in a little child who discovers a swinging ham- 
mock handkerchief, or a cook-stove in a box, 
as the dressmaker in her art of changing a few 
yards of satin and chiffon into a "creation." 

The dignity of this consciousness is revealed to 
us when we realize that it is the same power to 
see new meanings in familiar things that makes 
the poet and the reformer. The latter, inspired 
with a purpose to make the new better than the old, 
sweeps clean the alleys, giving "beauty for ashes." 

Movement a Large Element of Play 

At the very beginning of the establishment of 
playgrounds, in the last decade of the nineteenth 
century, a group of worr>en equipped a public- 
school yard with a few loads of cedar blocks and 
sand. One of these women lived opposite the 
school and watched the play from her windows 
all Summer long. She noticed the way in which 
children of different ages used the blocks. The 
older children built ambitious houses with rooms 
and towers ; the younger ones merely made en- 
closures, while the youngsters hustled them about. 
All day long groups of babies might be seen lug- 
ging the big blocks from one part of the yard to 
another. At the end of one day they would all 
be piled at one corner of the yard. The next 
day, like busy ants carrying their loads, the pro- 
cession would be headed for another place, where 
again they would pile them in a huddle. \Miat 
they were making no one knew, but at least they 
were on the move and accomplishing a mighty 
work. 

Much of play at three years is like this in that 
it is making things more. Many of the plays 
mentioned by Mrs. Sies and Miss Palmer for the 
earlier years are still in place after the third 
birthday. They serve an excellent purpose as 
long as their charm lasts. 

I watched a little nephew for three days at play 
with a toy of his own making. It was merely 



a small metal wheel tied to the end of a long 
string. He threw the wheel as high and as far 
as he could, aiming it to go over the telephone 
wire. When he had it dangling over the wire, 
the game continued by running it down the slant 
of the wire to -its lowest point, when it would be 
jerked down and the process repeated. This with 
variations was the favored play for the time. 

Wheels, balls, velocipedes, wagons, are all fa- 
vorites. Something to push, pull, roll, throw, 
ride ; something to carry things in, to drag about, 
all give the desired and valuable thing, bodily 
exercise of a vigorous sort, and varied exercise, 
too, which is as important, and a definite point 
to be reached. 

Progress in Play 

Somewhere along this line of inventive play 
real construction, or making, begins. Two things 
are put together to make a third, quite new and 
different. The box that served as a stove is seen 
to need a pipe, when the pencil lying near invites 
itself to be thrust in for that purpose. This is 
a distinctly higher step beyond that of imagining 
the box a stove without changing it outwardly. 
A handkerchief swung between the hands is a 
hammock, but when it is tied to two chairs with 
a piece of string and a doll swung in it, real 
making has begun. The simple adaptation of a 
thing to a new use has grown into adjusting parts 
to make a new whole. This involves more think- 
ing and more skill in handling. Just here, if there 
is a line at all, the line may be drawn marking off 
what we might call "the kindergarten age" as dis- 
tinct from "the nursery age." 

Constructive play is the best descriptive term 
for this particular activity. From about the mid- 
dle of the fourth year on it takes a high place, 
and continues to develop without ceasing, if given 
intelligent direction and scope, into all forms of 
artistic production. 

The same impulse, to complete ideas by making 
them take shape in material form, leads children 
to make plays about the life which surrounds 
them, and of which they are eager witnesses. 

The doings of people are unfolding before them 
like an open book. Sooner or later the novelty 
of an act or its repetition will attract their atten- 
tion and become part of their stock of material, 
to be developed in play. 

Through these plays we may see ourselves as 
others see us, rrwre often to the tickling of our 
humor than of our vanity. For this is the mode 
of character-study that children u-se. Our mo- 
tives are being probed, and our idiosyncrasies 
mercilessly laid bare. 

It would be difficult to over-emphasize the im- 



i86 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



portant part played by imitative learning at this 
age. There is no sphere of action in which your 
child is not an imitative learner. Your tones, 
voice, gesture, language, are all models which he 
copies both unconsciously and consciously. Soon 
he will absorb, in the same way, your attitudes 
toward many things — toward servants, animals, 
and inanimate things. Your animosities and fears 
will be adopted as quickly as your likes and pref- 
erences. It is a fine discipline for a mother to 
hide and control her fears of snakes, thunder, and 
burglars, that her little ones may not live under 
bondage of fear; and father has been known to 
stop the use of an untoward expression after he 
has heard it repeated by his child. 

So, in plays of physical action, of making, and 
of impersonation, our children are "putting them- 
selves through school." The only school appro- 
priate to their age makes chief use of these 
instinctive modes of play. 

Social Play 

Most children of this age play alone content- 
edly for a large part of the time, but they love 
companions'hip and are the better for having those 
near their own age with whom to associate in play. 
It affords them the discipline they need in giving 
up to others of like age and interests. It gives 
them the chance to learn from each other as well, 
to learn leadership and following. 

Where there are no other children in the family, 
it is a good plan to invite outsiders in to share 
the playroom and its equipment, especially if there 
is no kindergarten to which they can be sent. 

This might be done when the mother or some 
older person can be near enough to give the occa- 
sional word or decision that is often necessary 
when friction arises or the play needs guidance. 

The Mother as Kindergartner 

It is not to be supposed that this incidental 
supervision is all that will be needed. Other 
matters will often have to be set aside, for periods 
of careful supervision. I know this is not easy. 

One merely has to make a choice of what to 
leave undone. Something must be left, if this 
unutterably precious planting-season of childhood 
is to be given the care it needs. Meals must be 
planned, poss-ibly cooked as well, rooms dusted, 
marketing done, and the basket is piled high with 
mending; the day is so full that the little child is 
likely to be left to himself as long as he is quiet 
and good. 

What is the secret of this "goodness"? In nine 
cases out of ten it lies in occupation. The mother 
who has not merely the supervision of her house 



but the actual work as well will find she must be 
willing to leave her baking or her dishwashing, 
to make paste; or find a piece of string; or cut 
a sail for a boat ; or in some such way help the 
little worker out of some difficulty that stands 
between him and the accomplishment of a cher- 
ished project. 

Should any mother be discouraged by this pro- 
gram, let her take heart of grace, for not only 
are the rewards great beyond all counting, but, 
happily, it is a fine principle to "let well enough 
alone." Just as long as a child is happily ab- 
sorbed in play, it is better to let him work it out 
in his own way than to meddle in the attempt to 
improve upon his self-assigned business.* 

Preservation of Initiative 

When any occupation fits a child's capacity and 
interests, he will need the minimum of oversight 
and direction. 

"Let me do it myself" is one of the sayings 
oftenest heard when v/e try to help a child out 
of some difficulty in his play. The main duty 
for us is to provide play-materials with enough 
variety to hold interest, and not so many as to 
confuse the child. 

This is one great advantage of the Montessori 
material. It offers something definite to do, and 
invites handling. Children can see their own 
errors when they have not made the thing that 
the material was designed to make. For example, 
in one of the pieces of apparatus there are cylin- 
■ ders of dift'erent heights to be fitted into corre- 
sponding cylindrical holes. If the short piece is 
dropped into the deep hole it reveals to the little 
worker that he has made an error and just what 
the error is. 

Much of the earlier kindergarten work was 
weak at this point. The ends to be reached were 
not within a child's power of self-correction; they 
required too constant direction by an older head. 
Children who are helped too much to do work 
that they can not see into become dependent. 
Primary teachers often complained that children 
from certain kindergartens were "always wanting 
someone at their elbows to help." 

It is only fair to state that many times the 
fault lay as much with the primary teacher, who 
received a child brimming with energy from a 
kindergarten and had no active employments to 
offer him. 

The progressive kindergartner selects, from the 
kindergarten materials as originally planned, those 

* In this connection it will be Iielpful to read Miss Palmer's 
article on "E.\perinient, Imitation, Kepetition, and Purpose," 
page 436. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



187 



that experience has proved most rich in resources 
for a child's own inventive play. 

Plays Grow Out of Immediate Surroundings 

It is fortunate for the mother who must be 
kindergartner as well, that the plays of children 
are founded on things near to them. All that 
goes on in the house or out becomes grist for 
his mill. To build a little range with blocks, 
kindle an imaginary fire, cook delicious food in 
a make-believe pan, and serve it piping hot to 
an appreciative parent, this is living ! 

Then, presto ! The scene changes ; an acci- 



dental shift reveals in the stove an automobile, and 
mother is bidden to ride in the park ; now it turns 
out to be a delivery wagon, and she must be 
ready to receive the supply of groceries. Or, a 
train loaded with coal from the mine in the pantry 
is unloaded at the coal-yard under the table. 

Why is all this imitative-making so full of 
charm? In addition to the reasons already given 
there is the lure of mystery. Wagons come from 
somewhere and depart again — where? To the 
young child there is mystery in the sources and 
destiny of the commonest things. And mystery 
to the child, as to us, is a lure, beckoning on to 
further explorations. 



III. BUILDING PLAYS 



Suitable play-material should be one of the chief 
concerns of a mother who wants her child's play 
to help him grow. We would not dream of send- 
ing an older child to school without supplying 
him- with the necessary books, paper, pencils, and 
what not. Yet most of us give scanty attention 
to the playthings of the younger ones. 

Most of them have toys enough, some too many 
and too elaborate ones. Many of them do not 
satisfy the desire to "make something." Material 
for "putting things together," to make something, 
is highly important, so are materials for drawing 
and coloring. In the nursery, with its blocks, 
crayons, paper, scissors, modeling clay, sand, peb- 
bles, seeds, and sticks, the little experimenter 
works diligently. This is his laboratory in which 
he finds out things; his studio in which he draws; 
his workshop in which he plans and makes. 

The Little Builder 

One of the most vivid memories of my early 
childhood is of being called by my father to go 
down to the. barnyard and -pick up some ends of 
boards left by the carpenter when he mended the 
gate. Among them were some that I foresaw 
would be good to build with. How greedily I 
gathered them into my apron, and how ardently 
I wished there were more gates to be mended 
that I might have more of these wonderful blocks ! 
They were rough and ill-fitting compared to those 
we have now, but they were all I ever had, and 
met, if they did not fill, a want. 

All children love to play house. In one form 
or another, it makes the theme for most of their 
play throughout childhood. The play varies with 
the kind of material that comes to hand; if blocks, 
they build houses ; if clay, they make cakes ; if 
dolls, they are dressed and undressed, fed, put 
to bed, and taken to ride. 

K.N.— 14 



Blocks are particularly suitable at this age, 
when children's ideas are fleeting, quickly chang- 
ing from one thing to another. The blocks respond 
readily to the changes of purpose. 

The best blocks are plain cubes and bricks in 
proportionate sizes, with a few long blocks for 
bridges and roofing. They should be large 
enough to handle easily — cubes two inches square ; 
bricks 2x1x4. The old-style kindergarten 
one-inch blocks are much too small. To place 
them was a strain on the nerves, requiring too 
accurate movements. I have seen little children 
exasperated into fits of nervous temper in the 
effort to make the little blocks stay in place. 

It is a good plan to begin with either cubes 
or bricks alone, until they get acquainted with 
their possibilities. 

With cubes alone, houses, trains, and furniture 
are always suggested. When an older person 
takes a hand in the play she can remind the 
children 'o-f objects related to the ones they have 
made; for example, a child makes a table and 
stops there ; Mother suggests chairs to put around 
it, gives him acorn cups for dishes. Mary makes 
a bed, is delighted with it; Mother makes a 
bureau to go with it. Mother says, "See if you 
can make a chair, or table, or wash-stand to put 
in your bedroom." 

Jack makes a train, shoves it up and down. 
Mother says, "Where does your train start 
from?" or, "Where is it going?" "What is it 
carrying?" "Do you want to load it with coal?" 
"or corn?" Mother gets something that he can 
really put en his cars, such as he sees on real 
trains. Or she may say, "Can you build a de- 
pot?" Perhaps she will add her skill to his by 
building a depot herself. When the trains begin 
to stop at the freight-house or lumber-yard to 
unload, the play grows more interesting, because 



i88 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



there is "something doing." Now is the time to 
propose the question of bridges and viaducts. 
"How do people get over the tracks safely?" 
"Is there a flagman? A viaduct (overhead 
bridge)?" "Do you want to make a long one? 
Here are some long blocks." Little penny-dolls 
to walk over the viaduct help to make the need 
of these structures vivid. 

As this is all play, the suggestions can be taken 
by the youngster or left, as he chooses, for the 
essence of play is spontaneity. 

Let us see what can be done with bricks alone. 
After playing with the rather clumsy cubes the 
bricks seem much more usable. There are so 
many more things one can do with them. They 
lend themselves to making long tracks, sidewalks, 
and enclosures. 

Barnyard fences can be built in which any 
little toy animals may be safely kept, such as 
those found in Noah's ark. The furniture, 
crudely built already with cubes, can be made in 
better proportion and more detail. 

Yards may be planted with flowers stuck in 
spools, or furnished with seesaws made of sticks 
and spools. 

Another exercise that children enjoy is to 
stand the blocks in a row near enough together 
for a block to touch the next one in falling. A 
slight tap given to a block at one end sends the 
others down in a delightfully rattling row. 

Here is a good one for eye and hand training : 

Place a brick on its broad face, lay another 
across it at right angles, at the middle of the 
first. Repeat until all the blocks are piled. 

Take them down and repeat, with this varia- 
tion : place the bricks on their long, narrozv faces. 

Take down and repeat, placing the bricks on 
their smallest faces. 

Language-Training 

The game described above illustrates the train- 
ing in the use of definite descriptive terms that 
a child gets when an older person, playing with 
him, takes pains to use and emphasize them in 
the right connection ! As we play we naturally 
talk about what vi^e are going to do, and how 
we are going to do it. 

The terms are usually learned instantly, be- 
cause they are used at a time when his interest 
centers in getting something definite done, such 
as balancing a brick on its narrow face. 

In these two balancing exercises the terms 
"long," "narrow," "broad," "front to back," etc., 
describe the dimensions of the blocks that one 
must notice to get the building to stand properly. 

Number-terms are learned similarly. We say, 
"Give me four more blocks." "Put two here and 



three there" (suiting action to word). The eye 
sees the number, the hand feels it, while the 
mother names it. 

My little four-year-old neighbor, Patty, runs 
in and out of the house many times a day. Each 
time she tries to make conversation, apparently 
imitating the topics discussed by the callers in 
her mother's parlor, and, sad to say, talking in 
consequence about nothing at all. This meaning- 
less talk was so noticeable that one day I invited 
her to sit at a little table near me and build with 
some bricks. She merely huddled them together 
aimlessly. The next time she came in I sat down 
to build with her. Again she tried, but could 
make nothing. So I built a house with steps 
leading to it. Then I built a part of another 
house and left her to finish it, which she did by 
adding roof and steps. After looking at it with 
distinct pleasure she said timidly, "May I take it 
down?" I said "Yes, of course. You can build 
another, can't you ?" 

As she took it apart, a few blocks left together 
resembled a bed. She called my attention to it, 
and I said, "Sure enough; can you finish that?" 
This she did quite successfully. Then I went into 
another room, from which she called me again 
and again, to see something new each time. And 
each time she had some interesting thing to tell 
me about what she had made. 

Gone was restlessness and gone the mean- 
ingless chatter. As I write she sits beside me. 
She is not only gaining in the power to picture 
things with the blocks, but she has something 
worth while to talk about. 

When children are at work happily, they natur- 
ally chatter to themselves or each other of their 
doings. This spontaneous talk is necessarily 
checked in a large group in the kindergarten or 
primary school, because the confusion and noise 
resulting from forty children "expressing them- 
selves freely" becomes unbearable. It is a pity 
that it must be so, as the imposed silence is not 
natural, and it causes a loss of the use of lan- 
guage where it would' be most helpful to the 
talker. "Free speech" is one of the advantages 
of a small group in the kindergarten or at home. 

The Oneness of Constructive and 
Dramatic Play 

As a child builds he often acts to complete his 
imagery, because the vjvidness of his ideas com- 
pels him to live them out in gesture and speech 
as well as in construction. He impersonates 
successively and with no strain of imagination 
the puffing of the locomotive, the ding-donging 
of the bell, the call of "tickets" of the conductor 
and the offering of the imaginary bit of paste- 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



189 



board by the passenger, when as conductor he 
solemnly collects the fares. As a "lightning- 
change artist" he is quite sufficient unto himself 
for many parts in many plays ; again and again, 
throughout an entire morning* he calls on you 
to keep a character, while he takes another. 

The best thing you can do for a child's educa- 
tion at this stage is to supply him with such 
material as blocks, balls, boxes, wheels, sticks, 
toy-wagons, boats, dolls, and similar time-honored 



playthings, and then keep in the liackground until 
such time as he needs help, emerging from your 
retirement to be whatever is needed, whether 
audience, spectator, sympathizer, or helper over 
some difficulty that has proved too much for the 
little experimenter. 

Too much can not be said of this freedom 
which Montessori calls "liberty." It is the very 
breath of life to the little struggler, trying to 
find himself through play. 



IV. MAKING CAKES AND OTHER MODELS 



Most people are able to recall, among their vivid 
recollections of childhood, certain happy hours 
spent in a warm and fragrant kitchen, when 
baking was on hand and a bit of dough, begged 
from the cook or Mother, was patted and rolled 
and pinched first into this shape and then into 
that, and finally, after a few mishaps, deposited 
in a pan and escorted to the oven, a shade darker, 
but infinitely sweeter than the larger loaves. 

These excursions into cookery were not so 
much in the nature of domestic science as ex- 
periments in the plastic art of modeling. Days 
when the painter w'as puttying panes of glass 
were made memorable, if he proved good-natured, 
by the weird animals and men we evolved from 
lumps of the delightfully responsive stuff, begged 
from him. 

One red-letter day stands out in my memory 
by reason of a discovery of a particularly smooth 
clay on the banks of the brook that ran through 
our pasture. We spent a long summer afternoon 
there, shaping a tea-set of tiny cups and saucers, 
which we put on a board to dry, with many glee- 
ful anticipations of the tea-party we should have 
when they should have baked in the sun. But 
alas ! when the dinner dishes were washed and 
put away the next day, and we ran to the brook, 
what was our grief to find the little tea-set had 
been trampled in the soft mud by vandal boys 
or stupid cows. This minor tragedy, with its 
swift succession of feelings, the pleasure of mak- 
ing, the glow of anticipation, and the bitter sense 
of loss, has helped me many a time to understand 
the value children put upon their own creations 
and plans, no matter how trivial they seem to 
grown-ups. And it has stood in my mind ever 
since as an interpretation of the charm of plastic 
making. 

The modeling clay or its substitutes, plasticine 
or plasteline, should be in every home where 
there are children. They may be had of the 
shops that sell kindergarten supplies. Clay dries 
out quickly. These substitutes have the advan- 



tage of staying soft indefinitely. (Where hard 
objects are desired, without baking in a kiln, 
permodello is recommended.) 

No occupation furnishes a better training in 
representing form and in leading children to 
observe the forms of objects. They are keen to 
notice the shapes of those things that they have 
tried to model. Little children do not appear to 
study the shape of an object while modeling. 
They do their studying afterward. 

It used to be my despair as a young kinder- 
gartner, in charge of the "baby group" of a large 
kindergarten, to try to secure any results on 
modeling days. The three- and four-year-olds 
would do nothing but pat and pound and roll the 
clay, regardless of my blandishments and invita- 
tions to "make a pretty round apple." They went 
on their own sweet way, pinching and pounding, 
until the clay dried in their hot little palms and 
crumbled into bits. 

Soon I saw that I might as well make a virtue 
of necessity, realizing that a certain amount of 
this kind of purely motor-play would have to go 
on until the children fou.4 out for themselves 
that they could make the soft lump take on the 
likenesses of familiar things. I learned to seize 
the fortunate moment when some child had acci- 
dentally happened to make his clay look like 
something, and to encourage him to do coil- 
scioiisly what had been done at first without pur- 
pose. 

In watching them I found there were three 
fundamental motions that all children seemed to 
make, just for the pleasure of feeling the clay 
move and yield under their hands. These were 
rolling, patting, and pinching; and the products 
were long rolls, thin cakes, and pinched-off bits. 
These bits became the clues by which they could 
be led into discovery of likenesses and into con- 
scious shaping of the clay. 

Accordingly I began to look for opportunities 
of helping the children to work through these 
motions to real representation. As this was in 



1 90 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



the days of the kindergarten program that called 
for certain things to be made as prescribed for 
the day, I had to proceed with some circumspec- 
tion, knowing that I was not working in accord- 
ance with the plans of the head kindergartner, 
but flying straight in the face of Recognized 
Authority and Established Principle. However, 
I concluded I might as well have a good time 
with the children, and follow their lead for the 
present, little knowing that I was doing quite 
the right and psychological thing. 

So, when some cliild held up to view a fine, 
long, round "worm," I would suggest that he 





'Birthday Cake' 



'Cookie. With Rai5ins 




"APPLES And BANANAS 

FIRST MODELINGS 

cut it into little rolls; to be put on the doll's plate. 
Or, again, I would take one of the little rolls 
and shape it into a batiana. Soon the whole group 
would be manufacturing rolls and bananas at an 
alarming rate. 

Fruit and rolls called for dishes to put them 
in. These were almost ready in the patty-cakes 
that some of the children always had on hand. 
A little pinching off of irregularities and we soon 
had plates enough for everyone. Then the little 
pinched-off bits were rolled into candies or berries 
to add to our feast. 

The next time the clay came on the table they 
began where they had left off, with definite ideas 
of things full of meaning that they could make. 
Soon they were ready to be shown how to get 
rounder cakes by rolling the clay round and round 
between the curving palms, and then gently pat- 



ting this ball into a disk about one-third of an inch 
thick. Sometimes, to keep them from pounding 
it too thin, we would make a game of patting in 
unison. We would lay our balls on the table and 
pat "One, two, three on one side, then "One, two, 
three, on the other side." This was quite effective 
in concentrating their attention on the effort to 
make a smooth disk of even thickness. 

I have dwelt on this in much detail, thinking 
it may help someone else to lead children out of 
the babylike use of motor-play to a discovery of 
the possibility of making things that "look like" 
something. Soon all the varieties of dishes can 
be evolved from the round 
disk above described. They 
find out that pinching up the 
edge keeps marbles from roll- 
ing out; that a "worm" added 
to a plate makes a fruit dish 
or basket. Curving the sides 
of a disk upward in the 
curved palm of the hand 
makes a deep dish. Rough- 
ened a little, it looks like a 
nest, for which the tiny pel- 
lets or balls they are always 
making become the eggs. 

The baskets may be filled 
with bananas or fruits of 
roundish shape and contrib- 
uted to a fruit-store which 
the older brothers and sisters 
might make of building blocks 
or boxes. 

When a mother or some 
older person sits down to play with the children 
more features are added to the play. After the 
children have rolled little balls, she may model a 
pea-pod, and the balls can be fitted in it. Or she 
may find a piece that the balls can be threaded on, 
and lo, a string of beads appears ! Another time 
she may show them how to color their beads with 
water-colors after they have dried. Or she may 
suggest the decoration of their larger cakes with 
tiny balls, like candies on a birthday cake. What 
fun it would be for them if she let them stick 
burnt matches all round the edge for candles. 

I have illustrated a principle that I believe 
holds good with almost all other materials, name- 
ly, that of letting them get acquainted with a 
material and what it is good for, freely using 
it in their own way until they are ready to 
welcome help. 




Basket 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



191 



V. PLAYING IN SAND 



Nothing offers a more constant source of em- 
ployment than a box of clean sand. We all love 
to thrust our fingers deep into it and feel it pour 
through them. It is something of the primitive 
left under the veneer of civilization, this delight 
in sheer touch and movement-sensations. Even 
the high-school girl and boy are sent to a pan 
of sand to work out the modeling of river-basins, 
continental outlines and mountain ranges, and 
find profit not unmixed with pleasantness in the 
task. 

An educator, prominent in the councils of the 
good and great, said recently to a group of moth- 
ers interested in promoting public playgrounds in 
their town, that when the homes could show a 
sand-pile in the yard there would be no difficulty 
in raising money for public playgrounds. Ex- 
planation followed; that when parents felt the 
importance of play enough to make that simple 
provision at home for play, and to play zvith 
their children, there would be the conviction that 
would cause public sports and recreation to be 
provided as well. 

A sand-bed with a removable cover of wire 
netting to keep out undesirable visitors is a great 
resource in a family of children. If there is no 
yard, a sand-table can be placed on a porch or 
even in a playroom. It may be made of a strong 
kitchen table with a rim of four boards six inches 
wide nailed to it. It will be necessary to give 
the table one or two good coats of floor or deck 
paint to keep the dampness from swelling the 
wood. The legs should be cut off to make it low 
enough for the younger children to stand at it 
and play easily. A smooth wooden cover can be 
put over it, converting it into a table for other 
purposes when not needed in this way. 

I remember one such table that stood under an 
old apple tree in a city yard. From her kitchen 
window the mother of the family used to watch 
the children at play while she kneaded her bread 
or washed her dishes. All Summer long they 
staged their dramas here, with a cotton rabbit, an 
elephant, and a china dog and cat as chief actors, 
and now and then a doll or two. For them moun- 
tains reared their heads, with caves of dreadful 
significance. Stream courses were laid out. chasms 
were spanned with bridges. The goat was hunted 
up and down mountains and was known to take 
marvelous leaps down precipitous crags. One play 
evolved out of another. Often the inspiration of 



a new one v^-as found in some story read to them 
by their mother. At other times the life that went 
on at the harbor was repeated, for this was one of 
the ports on the Great Lakes. Piers were built of 
blocks and ships came and went, taking on or 
discharging cargoes. 

A three-year-old would not carry on a highly 
organized play like any of these, but would use 
it much as indicated in the section on clay-model- 
ing. The little ones will exploit the sand, pour it 
through their fingers, heap it into mounds, bury 
their hands in it, playing a game of hide-and-seek 
with these members. They will pat it smooth and 
mark it over with tracks. 

Some day the mound will be seen as a little 
house with a door to go in and come out of. The 
finger-marked furrows become roads on which 
toy wagons come and go, or railways for pufiing 
locomotives. Sticks stuck upright in the sand 
fence in gardens, and twigs from the bushes are 
planted in dooryards. 

Mother may take a hand here by offering sug- 
gestions that often give the invention a fresh 
start. She helps the children perhaps by propos- 
ing that they use the shells or acorns that they 
have picked up on their walks to outline flower- 
beds, which they can plant with dandelions, sweet- 
clover, violets, or with flowers from the garden. 
Thus she helps them turn their often-repeated 
plays to new channels, or, as the school phrase 
runs, "to organize their activity." 

It does not make so much dift'erence what is 
done, sooner or later the little builder will repre- 
sent something out of his surroundings that has 
meaning for him. Eventually his play becomes 
a mirror held up to the outside world, bringing 
it to view in related pictures. Homes have gar- 
dens. They stand on streets, where other houses 
stand also. Sidewalks lead from one house to an- 
other. Flowers grow in the yards. For all this 
the sand offers a background, a relating medium. 
But of this more later. 

Pretty-shaped dishes and shells may be em- 
bedded in damp sand and when removed leave 
hollow prints that children enjoy. Or they can 
fill these hollow forms with sand and turn them 
out on a board, like molded desserts ready for the 
table — glorified mud-pies. 

But the invention of the children and their 
mothers can be trusted to evolve plays without 
further suggestion. 



192 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



VI. THE MONTESSORI METHODS IN THE HOME* 



BY M. V. O SHEA 



Doctor Montessori is a physician as well as a 
teacher. She first became interested in teaching 
in her efforts to educate feeble-minded children. 
She found that little or nothing could be accom- 
plished with them unless their work was based on 
the use of their senses and their hands. She could 
make no headway with them when she tried to 
have them learn from books. She had such suc- 
cess in the use of concrete sense and manual 
methods in training the feeble-minded that she 
concluded these same methods, enriched and am- 
plified, would be of value for normal children; so 
she extended what she found to be of service 
with the feeble-minded to the education of normal 
children. 

In the "Houses of Childhood" the children are 
always doing; they do not sit in seats and learn 
words. They work at buttoning and lacing frames, 




» • 

.« 

• -• • 

-• 

• -« • 

-• 



L.XCING AND BUTTONING FR.XMES 

performing the actions which they need to per- 
form in buttoning and unbuttoning their own 
clothes and in lacing and unlacing their own 
shoes. They build towers with blocks of varying 
sizes. They match colored spools. They use their 
fingers to trace letters or geometrical figures or 
to measure distances. They use their muscles to 
estimate the relative weight of different objects. 
They are often blindfolded and are required to 
fit geometrical insets into their proper forms, 
and in this way they must discover through feel- 
ing the characteristics and relations of various 
forms. They learn to read, in part, by construct- 
ing words from letters cut out of cardboard. 
They learn to write by tracing words on the sand 
or the floor or the blackboard. 



The History of the Montessori System 

The Montessori system is based on the principle 
that the child can learn only through sense-activity 
and motor action. Doctor Montessori did not 
discover this fundamental principle of learning. 
Every student of childhood and education, from 
Locket to the men of our own day, has emphasized 
it. Doctor Montessori has applied the principle 
skillfully in devising her apparatus, which trains 
the senses and stimulates constructive muscular 
activities. She is not a "discoverer" or a 
"wonder-worker :" she is simply a clever and 
resourceful teacher who is familiar with what 
many investigators have done and many teachers 
have accomplished; and she has made some ad- 
vance upon what others have achieved in the 
training of very young children. 

Doctor Montessori developed her system ir. 
Rome. The teaching in the regular schools there 
had always been based on memory work and rigid 
discipline, which took little account of individual 
needs or interests. The children learned from 
books; they did not use their senses in dealing 
with objects and they did not do anything with 
their hands. So when the Montessori methods 
began to attract attention, they were in such con- 
trast to the methods in vogue in most Italian 
schools that they appeared to be a brand-new 
discovery. As a matter of fact, the schools in 
America have for many decades been practicing 
to a greater or less extent the principles upon 
which the Montessori system is based. 

Characteristics of the System 

Doctor Montessori's views on the social train- 
ing and the discipline of children have attracted 
attention as well as her work in intellectual train- 
ing. The Montessori children are trained to help 
one another. They serve each other at luncheon- 
time, for instance. They cooperate in all their 
work. They assist in taking care of their 
school-room, and in 'doing everything else that 
is necessary in order to make their life and their 
work agreeable. They do not have servants wait 
on them; they are self-helpful and self-reliant. 



* Mrs. Newell has spoken with approval of the self-correcting feature in Montessori play, and it has also found 
praise because it incites little children to persist in solving problems. We have asked Professor O'Shea to describe for 
us its advantages and disadvantages, and show how it may be used in the home. For the sake of continuity, his article 
is inserted in the Course at this point, where Mrs. Newell turns from simple hand-plays to plays involving, as does 
Montessori iilay. the trainincr of the senses. — The Editors. 

t John Locke, English philosopher, lived 1632 to 1704. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



'93 



Self-activity is a cardinal principle in all Montes- 
sori schools. 

Again, the Montessori children are given free- 
dom to do whatever interests them at any moment. 
Theoretically, in a school-room of twenty chil- 
dren, each one may be doing something different 
from everyone else. But as it works out, the 
children are usually all interested at any given 
time in what the teacher has planned for that 
time, and so they will all be working or playing 
together. But if any child does not wish to do 
what his fellows are doing, the teacher permits 
him to follow his own choice. It is a fundamental 
article of the Montessori creed that if children 
be provided with opportunities to do useful and 
educative things, they need not be coerced into 
any special thing at any particular time. "Let 
each one do what he wants to do," says Doctor 
Montessori, "and he will do what is best for him- 
self." 

The Apparatus in the Home 

How may mothers make use of the Montessori 
methods? The apparatus* would be found of 
value in any home where there are very young 
children. It is, however, not absolutely necessary 
to have this apparatus in order to apply the Mon- 
tessori principles. The typical home could quite 
easily be equipped and conducted so as to af- 
ford children all the varied sensory and manual 
training that can be gained from the Montessori 
apparatus. This apparatus is designed to give 
children experience in doing most of the im- 
portant things they will need to do in early life 
and to train them to observe and discriminate 
carefully through all the senses. Any ordinary 
home could provide many of the opportunities 
for sense training and manual activities which 
the apparatus provides, if a child would be al- 
lowed to use the home equipment, and if the 
mother would suggest uses for the kitchen uten- 
sils, his own clothes, and so on, which he will 
not think of. In the majority of homes probably 
the parents could without much inconvenience 
make its resources available for the use of the 
child. He shourd be allowed and encouraged to 
dress and undress himself, to help sweep the 
house, to put the kitchen utensils in their place, 
and so on. 

If a mother can give her child from three to 
five years of age considerable freedom in the use 
of objects in the home, and if he can be with her 
in the kitchen and elsewhere and participate in 
her activities, he will gain the sort of e.xperience 
that he is expected to get by the use of the 
Montessori apparatus. Further, if he has a sand- 

* The Montessori materials can be obtained from the 
House of Childhood, 103 West 14th Street, New York City. 



pile, and a collie dog. and tools such as a hamirier 
and saw and the like, with a place to use them, 
and a few pieces of gymnastic apparatus such as 
a rope ladder and a trapeze, he will gain broader 
experience than he could get if he should be 
limited to the Montessori apparatus. 

The chief deficiency in the Montessori system 
is that it is restricted to more or less formal and 
mechanical apparatus. Everything is prepared 
for the child, though he must be self-active in the 
use of all the apparatus. The child does not have 
a chance for very much originality in its use. 
There is not so good an opportunity to cultivate 
his initiative and imagination as would be possible 
with a sand-pile, or with tools, or a collie dog, or 
a train of cars, or a hoop, or a set of dishes, and 
so on, all of which can be provided in the typical 
home. 

Helping the Sense of Hearing 

Of course a young child will not wholly, unaided, 
use the objects around him to greatest advantage 
in promoting his own mental development. He 
will accomplish something on his own account, 
but his parents must cooperate by leading him to 
make discriminations among objects which he 
would not otherwise make, and to use these ob- 
jects for constructive purposes. Parents who are 
resourceful will find almost unlimited opportuni- 
ties in. the home to awaken the child's senses and 
to make him original and creative in using fa- 
miliar objects always in new ways, either to 
construct new designs with them or to derive 
new sensations from them. A parent who is in- 
terested in the activities of a child's -mind and is 
keen in directing his attention so that he will 
constantly discover new characteristics in objects, 
will find even a meager equipment in the home of 
immense value in stimulating the child's intel- 
lectual development. 

Take the sense of hearing, for instance. The 
Montessori sound-boxes are designed to stimulate 




SOUND BOXES 

the child to discriminate between different sounds. 
The view is that the greater the number of dis- 
criminations he can make, and the slighter the 
differences he can detect, the greater will be the 
development of the sense of hearing. The mother 
can cultivate auditory discrimination, beginning 
with even a very young child. The child can be 
blindfolded or, if he dislikes to be blindfolded, he 



194 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



can turn his back while the mother strikes a note 
on the piano. The child listens and must tell 
whether the note is struck at the left of the mid- 
dle of the keyboard or at the right of it. With a 
three-year-old child it is enough that the general 
location of the sounds shall be discriminated. 
If the child is unable to tell, then he will look 
while the sounds are made, and he will see that 




THE MUSICAL BELLS 

a sound is different when it is made in one part 
of the keyboard from what it is when made in a 
dififerent part. Then he must close his eyes and 
attempt to locate each sound by ear alone. He 
must continue this experience until he gains some 
power in holding his attention to soimds. 

The piano affords an opportunity to train dis- 
crimination for a great variety of sounds. With 
a very young child the sounds must be easily 
distinguished in order that he may discriminate 
them; but every day that he makes discrimina- 
tions his concentration of attention to situations 
of this sort will increase and his range of dis- 
criminations will be enlarged. Incidentally, the 
child will be gaining experience which will be 
useful to him later in the study of pitch and 
harmony in music. 

There are a vast number of opportunities in a 
typical home to cultivate discrimination through 
hearing. The child is blindfolded and the mother 
touches different dishes on the table. The child 
must discriminate the sound of each dish. He 
may not be able to do this at the outset, but when 
he can not tell, he will open his eyes and associate 
the object struck with its peculiar tone. Again, 
the mother touches the glasses on the table that 
contain different quantities of water, and each 
will give forth a characteristic tone, according 
to the quantity of water it contains. This test 
affords excellent training in noting minute dif- 
ferences in sounds. A child can not make the 
discrimination unless he can attend in a concen- 



trated way through the ear. Of course, this test 
would not be suitable for a two- or three-year-old, 
but it is fine training for a six-, seven-, or eight- 
year-old. 

Helping the Sense of Smell 

The Montessori system does not offer exercises 
for training the sense of smell as fully as the 
other senses; but this sense is of vital importance 
n life, and the young child should have experience 
in discriminating a large variety of odors. The 
first thing that will occur to the mother will be 
to blindfold the child and see if he can discrimi- 
nate an apple and an orange, or a peach and a 
pear, or a cherry and a plum, or any other com- 
bination of these fruits. Older children should 
have experience in attempting to discriminate 
varieties of apples by odors, perhaps also varieties 
of other fruits, though the discrimination required 
to detect varieties of oranges, say, are so subtle 
that the typical five-, six-, or seven-year-old child 
can not make them. Most adults can not make 
these discriminations. 

Flowers and blossoms afford admirable oppor- 
tunities for cultivating olfactory discriminations. 
It should be possible for a five-year-old child to 
discriminate all the familiar flowers and blos- 
soms by the sense of smell, though probably most 
children who have had no training at all in 
discrimination through smell can not give concen- 
trated attention to any stimulus coming through 
this sense. There are greater opportunities in 
the kitchen than any place to cultivate sensitive- 
ness in discriminating through the sense of smell. 
The various kinds of meats, cakes, breads, vege- 
tables, and so on, give forth characteristic odors 
at different stages in the process of cooking. A 
mother who could devote a moment once in a 
while to a test could blindfold her child and have 
him tell what is cooking in the oven or on the 
stove, or what has been freshly cooked and put 
in the pantry. One could not over-emphasize the 
importance of cultivating this sensitiveness to 
odors of cooking food. Expert chefs determine 
the quality of food and its condition in cooking 
largely by the olfactory sense. 

Helping the Sense of Touch 

It will at once occur to the observant mother 
that the home affords opportunities for cultivat- 
ing discriminations through the sense of touch. A 
quite young child should be able to discriminate 
the "feel" of an orange from that of an apple. 
The older he grows the finer discriminations he 
should be al)le to make, until when he is seven or 
eight he should be able to discriminate varieties 
of oranges and of apples and of other fruits by 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



195 



the sense of touch. The petals of every variety 
of blossom anil flower have a characteristic feel. 
It is a fine experience for a child to learn to dis- 
criminate the various touch impressions afforded 
by flovifers. The same is true of leaves and of 
grasses. When it comes to clothing, the oppor- 
tunities are almost infinite to discriminate kinds 
of clothing, and especially varieties of cloth, by 
the sense of touch. There are persons who can 
discriminate different colored yarns by the sense 
of touch, but this is very unusual and a mother 
should not expect any young child to make such 
minute discriminations. 

Helping the Sense of Sight 

The sense of sight has been left to the last 
because it is the most important of them all. A 
child can be encouraged to make discriminations 
between colors by grouping different colored ob- 
jects. In the kindergarten and in the Montessori 
schools the children classify various colored 
yarns. They have six or seven or eight shades 
of each of the important colors. These are mixed 
up and the child must group them properly. In 
respect to forms, he is given a number of objects 
of different forms and he classifies them just as 




m 


m 


m 


m 


m 


m 




ll 


III 


'H 


m 


S 


S 




GEOMETRICAL INSETS 

he does the colors. He puts the spheres together, 
and the cylinders together, and the cubes to- 
gether, and so on. Again, he may be given a 
boxful of objects, such as buttons, beads, rice, 
beans, and the like. He must classify these, put- 
ting the pearl buttons in one cup, the lima beans 
in another cr.p, the navy beans in still another 
cup, and so on. There is hardly any limit to the 



variety of objects that could be included in the 
pile; and the parent, watching the child make his 
discriminations, will have boundless opportunities 
to assist him to concentrate his attention upon the 
objects with which he is dealing and note their 
essential characteristics. 

In the Montessori schools the children have a 
good deal of experience in discriminating geo- 
metrical forms, not only by the sense of sight 
but also by the sense of touch. They look at a 
triangular form, for instance, and they must put 
this in its proper place in the frame from which 
it has been removed. A parent could easily cut 
out a variety of geometrical forms from a thin 
board, and his child could have excellent ex- 
perience in attempting to insert each form in its 
proper place; first by the sense of sight, then by 
the sense of touch. The value of this exercise 
may be greatly extended as the child grows older, 
by giving him blocks of various forms and sizes 
and guiding him to construct objects, as a bridge 
or a doll house or what not, using blocks of 
particular forms and sizes for each part of his 
structure. 

The Apparatus Has No Supernatural 
Powers 

Some disciples of the Montessori system object 
to the use of any of the apparatus in the home. 
They say that an untrained parent can not com- 
prehend the subtle properties of the apparatus. 
They speak as though there were some hidden, 
mysterious value about the buttoning or lacing 
frames, or the geometrical insets, or the cylinders, 
or the sound-boxes, which the layman can not 
appreciate. 

All enthusiasts are likely to regard the thing 
which arouses their enthusiasm in a reverential 
light. Kindergartners sometimes speak of the 
gifts in a mystical way, as though a child who 
used the sphere or cylinder or cube in the kin- 
dergarten gained a peculiar spiritual benefit which 
he could not secure by using balls or blocks or 
various forms outside of the kindergarten. Froe- 
bel was a mystic, and he taught his followers that 
the kindergarten gifts were keys to all knowledge 
and deep spiritual experience, and to this day one 
can hear some kindergartners maintain that a 
child of five who works with the gifts acquires 
a philosophical understanding of the universe 
which could not be gained in any other way. Of 
course, most kindergartners have abandoned this 
view and they now look upon the gifts simply as 
useful materials with which to occupy a young 
child and give him experience with the character- 
istics of different geometrical forms and with their 
use in constructive activities. Kindergartners who 



196 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



take a rational view of kindergarten work very 
well realize that a child may gain all the ex- 
perience, insight, and knowledge in his home that 
he could gain from the gifts in any kindergarten, 
if he had guidance from a parent or brother or 
sister who understood how to lead him to ap- 
preciate the characteristics and possibilities of the 
objects with which he came in contact. 

In the same way Montessori teachers who have 
recovered from the first feeling of reverence for 
the Montessori apparatus realize that there is 
nothing supernatural about it. It does not pos- 
sess peculiar and mystical value which the ob- 
jects of daily life do not possess. A child who 
is using the buttoning frame in a Montessori 
school is not gaining an)' deeper knowledge of 
the world or any clearer spiritual insight than he 
would gain if he were buttoning and unbuttoning 
his own clothes in his home. When he is testing 
different weights in order to develop the kines- 



DIMENSION BLOCKS 




thetic sense, he is not gaining anything different 
from what he would gain in his own home if he 
had similar objects and if he were led by his 
mother to become sensitive to slight differences 
in weight. And so with all the Montessori ap- 
paratus ; there is no reason why it should not be 
of value in the home and why it can not be used 
by a mother to keep her children occupied in an 
interesting and profitable manner; to assist them 
in gaining ideas of form and weight and color 
and to acquire skill in execution, as in buttoning, 
lacing, tying bowknots, and so on. 



Needless to say, the more skillful the mother 
is in leading the child to perceive the precise 
characteristics of any form with which he is 
working, or to discriminate slight differences in 
weight or in color or in sound, the greater will 
be the value for the child. The same principle 
holds in a Montessori school. Montessori teachers 
differ in their ability to use the apparatus to ad- 
vance the mental development of their children. 
Some are keen students of psychological pro- 
cesses and they can assist a child to make fine 
discriminations which another teacher who is not 
so good a psychologist could not accomplish. So 
in the home, some mothers can use the appa- 
ratus to greater advantage than others ; but every 
mother, no matter how little skill she may possess 
in analyzing her child's mental processes and as- 
sisting him to gain clear and accurate impressions 
of anything with which he is working, would find 
the Montessori apparatus of greater value than 
not to have anything like it in the home. 

What the Real Value Is in the System 

A parent who becomes familiar with the Mon- 
tessori system of education gives his children 
larger freedom to work out their own plans than 
he would naturally do. Most parents interfere 
too much with their children's activities. They do 
too many things for them.* Normal children 
wish to do everything possible for themselves; 
but parents often think they are so small they 
need help, or they take so much time to do any- 
thing that they can not wait for them, or they 
make such a "mess" of much that they try to do 
that it will save time and worry and trouble to 
do it for them. The Montessori philosophy is 
diametrically opposed to all this. It maintains 
that the only way a child can learn is to be self- 
active. Parents often proceed as if, should they 
prevent their children from doing anything while 
they are children, they will somehow acquire 
knowledge and ability and resourcefulness when 
they become mature. This is the chief defect in 
parental methods of training children. 



• If they have not yet been read, the two articles. "The 
Importance of Self-Help," by Dr. Montessori, page 294, and 
"Seif-Making," by Susan E. Blow, page 354, may be read 
now. -Mso Dr. Kilpatrick's article. "What Has the .Ameri- 
can Kindergarten to Learn from Montessori?" page 432. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



197 



VII. THE INSTINCT FOR COLLECTING 



The love of repetition, that children at this age 
show in the folk-rhymes and tales that have been 
nursery favorites for generations, is shown as 
well in their love of accumulating like objects of 
all sorts. It is shown also in their self-made 
games in which some movement is repeated over 
and over again. 

This tendency is seen most clearly in the baby 
days, when all sorts of clutching, shaking, reach- 
ing, dropping, and picking up is playfully prac- 
ticed. This "try-try-again" play is as necessary 
for getting control of the body now as it was in 
earlier infancy, but in more developed and com- 
plicated ways. 

Nature takes this way of giving the little human 
being a control of his movements, and still further 
of acquiring a stock of ideas as to how things 
behave as they are shaken, dropped, and banged. 
Occupations for the three-year-old must allow for 
this tendency and utilize it. The stringing of the 
colored wooden beads is one method. It is fasci- 
nating to a child to see the bead glide down the 
string, his color sense is satisfied, and he can 
choose the color or form that he wants. The 
repetition is Jike a game ; -the string grows longer 
and longer through his own industry. 

I remember the intense desire my little girl 
had at three years for "more" of everything. I 
noticed it first in her wish for more and yet more 
spools. I hunted up all I could find, begged some 
from a friend, and finally a sympathetic aunt not 
only gathered a great stock of them but stained 
them in bright colors as well, sending them with 
this inscription, "In order that Olive's desire for 
'a collection' may be satisfied." For a long time 
these were the favorites among her playthings. 
She built fences, chimneys, and houses of dit^er- 
ent colors. 

A similar joy came from a box of porcelain 
tiles in red, green, and white, left from a mantel. 
A kindergartner found a bo.x; of small square tiles 
in two colors just as attractive to the large group 
of babies in her public kindergarten. These were 
such as are used in tiled floors. They are not 
as breakable as porcelain and so are much better. 

So strong was this feeling for collecting in my 
own daughter's mind that she seldom acquired a 
cast-off bottle-stopper, cork, box, button, or like 
piece of "junk" without immediately wondering 
where she could find more of the same kind. The 
word "more," which was almost the first one she 
learned, came to be an index .to her dominating 
desire at one period until she came to be known 
by her father as "Oliver Twist." 



We made use of the instinct in our walks in 
the grove, where we picked up acorns, pebbles, 
rock fragments, pretty bits of moss, leaves, and 
empty snail shells. The finding of one was al- 
ways the incentive to look for more. I always 
gave her the correct name for each treasure. 
For example, our soil abounded in both mica and 
quartz. Some of the latter was in bits of the 
shape and color of bacon, known on this account 
as "bacon quartz." This name gave her a great 
deal of pleasure, as she recognized the likeness. 
As for the mica, we were pleased with its shini- 
ness and flakiness, and were rivals -in finding a 
bigger and yet bigger piece, accumulating finally 
a bo.x of it. 

Her interest may be imagined when two years 
later we passed an old mica mine on the road 
and clambered a little way down this hole, where 
we broke off great chunks of the mineral in 
enormous plates. 

What to do with these collections is the next 
question. If a shelf can be given up to them, 
they may be sorted in boxes, to be used whenever 
they fit into a larger play. Bits of looking-glass 
serve as lakes in the sand-table. Moss makes 
good doll beds. Smooth round pebbles are good 
for cakes on the doll-table, and to outline flower 
beds, heaped and rounded on the sand-table; 
round oak balls make play footballs on the mimic 
playground that is arranged by Mother and kiddie 
at some time when Mother can give herself up to 
playing for a few minutes. We found that a 
bit of pine bark could be easily bored through 
with a bodkin, and then a little stick set up in 
the hole made of it a boat. The curving pieces 
made doll cradles. 

A flock of pigeons dropped so many wing- 
feathers in our path from time to time that we 
gathered enough to sew on a band for an Indian 
head-dress. In these and many other ways we 
made the interest in collections contribute to other 
occupations.* 



* Whenever the child begins to be interested in the things 
which he has "made," it is well to stretch a piece of canvas 
from the picture molding to the mop-board in some conven- 
ient s|>ace in the nursery. A strip of new muslin would per- 
haps answer the purpose. When space is extremely limited, 
it is possible to mount the cloth on a window-shade roller, 
or even use a window-shade as the cloth. The roller should 
be mounted on brackets on a door, if necessary, and the 
entire surface can be rolled up and be quite inconspicuous, 
if not entirely removed, when not in use. 

A few square feet of blackboard-cloth can be attached to 
this canvas or shade, and is very useful, not only in giving 
children occupation, but as a means of development. This 
is a space on which may be pinned things which the child 
wishes to keep: for instance, when with a blunt pair of scis- 
sors a child first begins to cut out pictures, a creditable 
effort may be fastened here. This pleases the little one and 
acts as an encouragement. 



198 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



VIII. STRINGING BEADS 



Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries for 
Christmas-tree decoration? Or make daisy and 
sweet-clover chains, or fragile necklaces of pine- 
needles? 

These are traditional with children. Bead- 
stringing is in the same class. It is provided for 
in the kindergarten supply- stores, by wooden 
beads in three shapes— balls, cubes, and cylin- 
ders. They are painted in the six prismatic 
colors. Shoestrings serve to string them on. 
Many different arrangements may be made: on 
the basis of form, all balls first, then all of an- 
other shape, then the third. Or, you may make 
a number-grouping, two of each, or three of each 
kind. 

Stringing by color is usually done 'best by hav- 
ing the children sort the beads into different 
boxes by color, and then choose an arrangement, 
such as two red, two blue, two red, two blue. Or 
they may use three colors or more. The string 
can be worn as a necklace for a while and then 
unstrung, ready for another time. 

By far the prettiest necklaces, although more 
sober in tone, are those made of seeds. 

Corn — red, yellow, white, black Mexican — is 
really gay. Pumpkin, squash, and melon-seeds 
are pretty in shape. Alternated with red rose- 



hips they are gay, too. Corn, peas, and apple- 
seeds need to be soaked in warm water a while 
to make them soft enough to pierce with the 
needle. 

Yellow oat-straw may be soaked and cut into 
half-inch lengths to alternate with any of these. 

I have seen curtains made for windows by 
hanging these strings close together. It is nec- 
essary to help the children find the way to put 
the needle through the seed at the best point. 
Then, with a strong thread and needle not too 
large, they will be happy alone. 

One of the good features of this play is the 
study of the seeds in gathering them, cleaning 
them, and noticing how they are borne on the 
mother stalk. Corn is in rows, beans are in a 
pod, melon and pumpkin-seeds are in the heart, 
attached by long strands to the inside of the 
glowing globe. Let them help you dean and 
dry them. 

Strips of paper about a third of an inch wide 
pasted into rings and looped together have always 
been an occupation for the youngest children in 
the kindergarten. It has been "overworked" 
there, but I would not condemn it on that account. 
We made the links of the chain this year in gold 
and red to trim our tree, in place of tinsel. 



IX. DRAWING AND COLORING 



All children go through a scribble stage in draw- 
ing. In it the enjoyment, like that of their play 
in blocks, sand, clay, and cuttings, is largely 
pleasure in their own movement. Their joy in 
the marks made has not much to do with picture- 
making. By and by it dawns upon them that the 
moving arm makes the trailing line go in certain 
differing directions, round and round, back and 
forth, up and down. 

The next step is like the one already described 
in modeling; an accidental picture is made. Then 
he tries to get the resemblance again and again. 
Not very successful, nevertheless he is started on 
a new road, that of choosing certain movements 
to get certain results which he foresees. 

He has learned that the wonderful things that 
others draw for him are not the results of some 
mysterious hocus-pocus, but are produced by some 
such purposeful guidance of the pencil as he 
himself is now striving after. Gradually he 
learns to tell his ideas of things in simple out- 
lines: a circle with two downward strokes for 
legs is a man, a "peaky" roof and two downright 



lines are a house. The four-year-old is usually 
in this stage of the drawing art. 

Do not he afraid to exercise your own slender 
skill for your children. It will be a great incen- 
tive to them to try their own. Suppose you have 
told them the old tale of the Three Little Pigs. 
Draw for them the straw house, the brush house, 
and the brick house ; or the three beds of the 
three bears, for which three lines each will suf- 
fice. Remember it is the story aspect of the pic- 
tures that a child delights in. Let your pencil 
talk, saying, for instance, "Here is a man, here 
is a dog following him. Here is a bone the dog 
finds. Now they are going over this bridge. 
Here is their house," etc. In this you will en- 
large his power of representing what he has seen 
in lines, just as you improved his speech through 
imitation. 

Other Steps in Drawing 

After the simplest outline stage, the third stage 
in drawing is in added detail. Bodies now inter- 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



199 



vene where earlier the legs sprouted directly from 
the head. Buttons on coats, eyes and mouths in 
faces, fingers on ends of arms, hats on heads, 
chimneys on houses, and similar details are signs 
of progress. 

It will be noticed that these items are all con- 
nected with use. Buttons fasten coats, hands are 
to grasp with. Steps lead up and one enters 
houses by them, and so on. But still we, as the 
children themselves, should not be too fastidious 
in our demands for grace or likeness in their 
productions. 

Materials for Practice in Drawing 

Nothing is so productive of freedom in the 
use of line as blackboard drawing. The arm 
swings freely across it. The eyes and fingers 
are not strained by too fine motions. It is easy 
to get a blackboard in a toy or department store. 
School and kindergarten supply-stores carry 
them, and also slated canvas to tack on the wall. 
A green prepared board is to be had that is much 
more pleasant to the eye than black. This may 
be bought by the square foot. 

Since the free-arm movement is the easiest, 
the surest, and the one demanded by most writ- 
ing teachers, it is important to begin with it, not 
with a finger-movement that will have to be un- 
learned in schools. So, Mother, give your young- 
ster large, soft pencils and large sheets of cheap 
paper, or better, a blackboard, and see that he 
does not grip crayon or pencil with tense finger 
muscles. 

I used to enjoy the babies of the kindergarten 
at play with the chalk and blackboard. Francis 
used to amuse himself while waiting for his 
mother to come for him by traveling the length 
of the long board, leaving "trolley wires" in his 
wake. Then he drew up-and-down marks at in- 
tervals, which I interpreted to be poles; later he 
added more horizontal lines for tracks. So far 
he was partly enjoying his power of making long 
lines, and exercising his legs in walking back and 
forth. One day this ceased and he toilsomely 
drew an oblong on one of the lower lines and 
carefully traced a slanting line to connect it with 
the upper line. This was, of course, a trolley- 
car. And as his mother and I knew, this was his 
first piece of real drawing. 

Encourage all such developments ; talk with 
children about their drawings, and listen to what 
they tell you. Dratv for and zmth them. 

Stick-laying has been much used in kindergar- 
tens as a kind of drawing. But the sticks were 
too small to be handled readily and so light as 
to be displaced by even a snee::e. Hasty move- 
ments effaced the work and led to irritation, yet 



certain results were pleasing and definite in 
outline. Long slats may be used in the same way 
on the floor to outline tents, houses, fences, and 
railroad tracks, or to suggest marching soldiers, 
trees, and other things. 
This is good for an occasional employment. 

Cutting Pictures 

One of the constant delights of children is 
cutting. Just to see the scissors snip off bit after 
bit and to look curiously and see if by chance 
each piece may mean something, this is the main 
purpose at first. Then it dawns on the cutter 
that a turn of the wrist will make a piece of 
a certain shape, and the use of scissors as a 
picture-making tool begins. The process of draw- 
ing with the scissors is described further in the 
next section, and as some of the suggestions may 
fit in here, the interested reader is referred to it. 

Cutting out pictures from the advertising pages 
of magazines may be made very delightful, if you 
will let the children make a temporary art-gallery 
on the nursery-door. A three-year-old nephew 
used to do this with a large varnish-brush and a 
dish of water as tools. I used to find the door 
plastered over, as high as he could reach, with 
the pictures that most took his fancy. Of course 
they peeled off by bedtime, but that did not mat- 
ter. It was the doing that he was after. 

The cutting is of course roughly done, and for 
that reason it is just as well not to place them 
in a scrapbook permanently ; meanwhile the rough 
cutting is a training for later, more accurate use 
of scissors. 

Paper Color-Forms 

The three-year-old child is lacking in the mus~ 
cular control that is needed to manage water- 
colors with any degree of skill ; moreover, his 
ideas of form are still so undeveloped that simple 
drawing answers better to express his picture of 
most objects. 

But the love of color is strong, and may be 
satisfied and trained in other ways. The rather 
heavy kindergarten colored papers lend them- 
selves to cutting and pasting. Colored crayons 
are useful to draw with or to use in coloring 
printed pictures. 

Here is a device that I have used to good effect. 
Give a child a sheet of manila paper and three 
strips of brown or black paper, one long and two 
shorter of equal length. Ask him if he can lay 
a picture of a table with these strips. When this 
is done let him paste each strip in position. Give 
him some pieces of red, yellow, and orange paper, 
on which you have drawn the outlines of apples, 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



pears, oranges, and liananas. which are ready to 
cut out and put on the table. 

A piece of brown wrapping-paper may be cut 
in the shape of a dish and the fruit cut out and 
pasted in it. 

Draw a large tree with brown crayon on a 
piece of smooth wrapping pa-per, fasten it to the 
wall or door with thumbtacks, or to a drawing 
board. Give the children red apples of smaller 
size to paste on the tree. Draw or cut a big 
basket under the tree and let them "fill" it with 
fruit. 

When the leaves are turning red and yellow 
the same plan could be used for making a picture 
of the maple and oak tree. You can cut quanti- 
ties of leaves at once on a folded piece of colored 
paper. 

Cut bluebirds from some model that you may 
find in a magazine. Let the children paste these, 
as if flying through the sky, hopping on the 
ground, perched on a bough of the tree, which 
has been drawn for them on a big sheet of paper. 
For special occasions, these bluebirds may be 
strung on black thread and festooned, as if flying 
across the room. 

You can outline birds, children, roses, sunflow- 



ers, pumpkins, houses, and what not, on wrapping 
or straw-colored manila drawing paper and let 
the children crayon them. Of course they will 
scribble outside the lines, but when they have cut 
them out, these blemishes may be snipped away. 
A bird-l>ook is a great delight to children be- 
cause of the colored plates. They can look these 
through before choosing their colors. 

Other Pleasant Color-Experiences 

Blowing bubbles* is another familiar nursery 
occupation that needs only to be named ; the clay 
pipe of our own childhood is now replaced by 
a fine varnished wooden toy, that in its turn may 
easily be replaced by the simple device of a spool, 
on one end of which Ivory soap has been rubbed, 
to assist the bubbles easily to emerge. An oil- 
cloth apron is a good protection for the dress, 
and it may be used in clay-modeling as well. 

A prism hung in a sunny window gives pure 
color. Set it dancing and let the babies try to 
catch it. Many a time a kindergarten baby has 
come to me with fat hands tightly clasped, sure 
that he has it fast, only to find it gone when the 
hands were carefully opened. 



X. MUSIC AND RHYTHM 



Music supplies something that nothing else can 
replace. It charms, rests, and invigorates. The 
two factors that contribute to a child's musical 
sense are his native impulse to croon — to invent 
little melodies of his own, and the impulse to 
imitate sounds made by others, just as he learns 
speech. The teaching of both singing and piano- 
music to-day makes use of both these impulses, 
invention and imitation. 

We would do much to cultivate the musical 
sense in children if we would Ijegin early to sing 
short phrases, which they can answer like an 
echo. Your little girl calls, "Mamma, I want you." 
Answer: 



^ 






S 



^- 



Yes, my dear, Here I am. 



Echo. 



^ 



There are scores of these tuneful dialog^ues that 
any ordinarily musical person can invent on the 
spot. Frequent dropping into these melodious 
conversations would make musical phrases as nat- 
ural a form of expression as speech alone. 

In carrying out this suggestion, use the simplest 
scale fragments. If you will think of the octave 
as the body of the scale, the first, third, fifth, and 
eighth tones are the backbone on which the other 
tones depend. These make what is called the 
common chord when sounded together. When 
sounded successively they make an arpeggio. 



Come to me. Come to me. 



* The following method of preparing the soapy water is 
excellent: 

Put into a pint bottle two ounces of best Castile soap, cut 
into thin shavings, and fill the bottle with cold water which 
has been first boiled and then left to cool. Shake well to- 
gether and allow the bottle to stand until the upper part of 
the solution is clear. Decant now this clear solution of two 
parts, adding one part glycerine, and you will have an ideal 
soap-bubble mixture. With some practice, bubbles measuring 
eight or ten inches in diameter may be produced and a 
stand for them be provided by soaping the edge of a 
tumbler. If any woolen material is laid on the floor and 
the room divided into halves by a shawl or blanket hung 
across, the children may be arranged in two opposing camps 
and have a very good match game, devising their own rules 
as to size and number of bubbles, whether they shall be kept 
in the air by fanning, how much it shall count if a bubble 
falls or strays across the line, etc. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



201 



Emphasis on these helps to give a firm grasp of 
the foundation of all tunes. They are most easily 
heard and reproduced. 



i 



fc3=± 



m 



s 



W^ 



-I — I— I- 



i 



i 



Boll -iog and roll -iog, the wheel turns around. 



i 



w 



im 



^ 



Grinding and grinding, the com now i3 ground. 

The scale may be broken into two fragments, 
each of which is a unit in itself. Practicing on 
these halves of the octave is good ear-training. 



I, 



^3^ 



i^-=- 



--1- 



4rz±t 



Fly a - way Jack, Fly a - way Jill, 



F^itt=» 




^m 



Come a - gain. Jack, Come a - gain JlD. 



j l^^J-^-J- 



»i *- 



Now we're climb - ing up the lad - der, 



^=^ 



m 



High - er, high - er, still we go. 

-I A 1 



' ^ — ft ' ^ 



Hear the blue - bird in tlje tree • top, 



i 



^3e 



]=a^ 



Sing - ing, chirp - ing, spring is here. 

A favorite game in some kindergartens is to 
sing tones in imitation of chimes. The teacher 
leads and the children try to imitate her exactly, 
using intervals similar to those given with the 
word above. Numbering the tones of the octave 
sing, 1-3-5-8 — 8-5-3-1. To the same succession 
sing "la-la-la-la-," or "I0-I0-I0-I0-." 

The Child-Voice 

Children's voices have a narrow range. What 
is a comfortable tone for a grown person may 



be too high or too low for a child. The average 
person pitches a song too low for children. It 
is a strain on the vocal cords to sing out of a 
comfortable range. Songs that range from mid- 
dle C to F above the second C are safe, provided 
there are no long-sustained notes at either of 
these extremes. 



effect on the throat organs. All kinds of vocal 
faults show up when it is indulged in. It is 
painful to listen to much of the singing in day- 
schools and Sunday-schools. It is so harsh and 
tense that one is reminded of the Irishman's 
reply to someone who asked him if he sang by 
note. "Well, no," he replied, "mostly I sings by 
main for-rce. ' 

Exercises in Rhythm 

There is nothing deeper, more primitive, in the 
range of human instinct than the feeling for 
rhythm. The savage's tom-tom sways the line 
of dusky dancers : the mother's rocking-chair 
soothes both her tired self and her baby; the 
weary business man steps alertly when a strain 
of martial music drifts down the street. It is a 
steadying, a soothing, or an arousing force, ac- 
cording to the character of its pulsing. But it is 
as an organising influence that it is valuable to 
a group of children. 

When they have been playing together for a 
time, the conflict of plans begins to irritate tired 
brains. They find it hard to compromise and 
agree. Then it is a great rest to the immature 
little citizens to have the burden of self-govern- 
ment lifted from them for a space. If you hear 
jarring sounds growing louder and more fre- 
quent in the nursery or playground, try going to 
the piano and playing something in spirited 
march time. Then call to them to march, under 
the leadership of the one best fitted to be captain, 
round the room once or twice, out into the hall, 
around the dining-room, and back to you. 

They may march on tiptoe, with a change of 
music if you can manage it ; then on heels for a 
little way. Change to a waltz time for a running 
step ; a two-four time will do, but the run is a 
little more light to three-four time. 

Institute a band and let all be drummers clap- 
ping to your music. Change the time from one. 
two, three, four, to ONE, two, ONE, two. See 
who can clap loud on the strong beat and soft 
on the weak beat. Let them play imaginary 
bugles to a familiar song, following the tune with 
their voices. 

Change to a soft lullaby and let them sway to 



202 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



the pulsation, like trees in the wind. End with 
"Rock-a-by, Baby, in the Tree-top." Hands may 
shape nests to swing at the ends of branches — 
and here is a good stopping-place, for by this 
time the current of their thoughts has been 
changed. And a little lesson in rhythm has been 
painlessly administered.* 

Song-Singing t 

The ideal song for a little child is one of but 
two or four lines set to a very simple melody. 
Most songs are too long. Excellent examples 
are found in Neidlinger's "Small Songs for Small 
Singers," and in the Primer and First Book of 
both the Modern Music Series and the Eleanor 
Smith Series of school song-books. An unusually 
good collection for home use in the nursery is 
the one by Miss Emilie Poulsson and Miss Eleanor 
Smith, which is exactly what its title indicates, 
"Songs for a Little Child's Day." 

No attempts should be made to have a child 
sing any song or phrase until he is quite familiar 
with it from hearing it sung. Most children will 
chime in here and there, when they have been 
sung to and have absorbed the musical and ver- 
bal ideas. Then it is time to take pains to have 
them sing with and after you. Many children 
cannot reproduce intonations accurately at this 
age, and appear to be tone-deaf, when really the 
perception of pitch has not been formed from 
lack of hearing enough simple melody. The ap- 
preciation of the "Upness and Downness" of 
pitch will only come through much hearing of 
simple songs simply and clearly sung. This is 
one of the most notable lacks in our American 
homes to-day. Children are as dependent upon 
their elders- for musical language as they are for 
a grasp of the spoken word. This mastery of 
musical phrases will come only through imitation, 
just as speech came. 

The pity of this scarcity of true music in the 
home is that it leaves children a prey to the fear- 
fully meager common music heard on the street, 
at the movies often, and alas ! on the phonograph 
at home. A revival of folk-songs and folk- 

* In vol. VI of the Bookshexf, Mr. Baltzell has taken 
considerable pains to show just how to play these simple 
action-songs. 

t The songs in vol. VI of the Bookshelf for little chil- 
dren are based upon a selection made by a special Committee 
of the International Kindergarten Union. 



singing will be the best means to introduce musi- 
cal ideas and lay the foundation for good taste 
in the home. 

An illustration from our own home shows how 
sensitive very little children may be to the spirit 
and character of the music they hear often. 

I had been accustomed to put our little girl in 
a high-chair at the piano from the time she was 
eighteen months old, to keep her entertained at 
meal-times, as she had no nurse, and this was 
the most effective way of disposing of the young 
lady. I could watch her through the open door 
between the living- and dining-rooms. This was 
possible without harm to her musical sense or 
the piano either, for she never pounded and had 
no love of discord. The result was that she 
soon found pleasant little chords and melodies, 
and at three would repeat some of them for her 
own delight. I paid no attention to teaching her, 
merely approving when the result was especially 
good. At four years she noticed that she could 
find a harmonizing tone with the left hand in the 
bass. As she had seen that older people played 
with both hands, this gave her a feeling of being 
much more real in her imitative way of "playing." 

One day she called me to hear what she could 
do. Playing grave chord with the right hand with 
the proper first and then fifth in the bass in a 
slow four-four time, she said, "Listen, Mamma, 
this is a church tune." Then changing to a 
lively "jig-a- jig-jig, and tum-a-tum-tum," she 
turned to me with a radiant face, saying, "Now 
do you know what that is ? It's a Sunday-school 
song !" 

The commentary on the class of music heard 
in Sunday-school was as sad as it was true. I 
feared for a long time that her taste would be 
vitiated by the frequent (weekly) hearing of this 
class of music, but fortunately she has had enough 
of the antidote to reject the sentimental and 
vapid, and in most cases to prefer the best. 

Let me repeat, for it can not be too strongly 
emphasized, if you would have your children sing, 
sing to them; if you would have them love the 
best, sing the best. And the best is often found 
in the old English, Irish, Scotch, and German 
folk-songs, such as we all ought to know. "Afinie 
Laurie," "Robin Adair," "Comin' Thro' the Rye," 
"The Low-Backed Car," "The Wearin' o' the 
Green," are all fair examples. 




FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



203 



XI. LITERATURE FOR KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN* 



ARRANGED BY THE EDITORS 



Stories and rhymes are the literature, the art of 
language, for children of kindergarten age. To 
appreciate good literature means to enjoy one of 
the highest products of civilization, a product 
which is the result of the high development of 
capacities which raise man above the brute — im- 
agination and verbal expression. 

General Aims 

To give pleasure, and in giving pleasure to 
develop appreciation of good literature. 

To rouse the imagination and the desire to 
create through verbal form or through dramatic 
representation. 

Specific Aims 

To develop control of verbal expression by 
supplying a choice vocabulary and by giving 
a model of art-form. 

To suggest lines of action which will appeal to 
the child and which he will produce dramatically, 
carrying his imagination over into situations 
which he has not actually experienced. 

To promote high ideals: I. Through stories of 
humorous situations. The lower orders of man 
enjoy unusual situations, even if these bring dis- 
comfort to another. The ideal humor provokes 
laughter by harmless surprise. 

2. Through stories which interpret a child's ex- 
perience. The significant in the child's own expe- 
rience can be isolated and emphasized or shown 
in its proper relations by means of a story. 

3. Through stories of moral purpose which 
give models for ways of acting. The moral should 
never be stated ; if it is not indicated obviously 
enough for the child to interpret for himself, the 
story is weak. 

Subject-Matter 

The real subject-matter of a story is the atti- 
tude toward the world which is emphasized by 
the activity of the characters in the story; it is 
the emotional response evoked in the listener. 
Stories may relate very directly to the mood 
which is to be roused. "The Night Before Christ- 
mas" will be told at Christmas-time, because it is 
the interpretation of this experience given in 



literary form. "The Old Woman and Her Pig" 
typifies the idea of sequence, and should be told 
when the children are engaged in activities which 
may exemplify the idea of interdependence. 

Stories for older children may be classified as 
myths, hero-tales, fables, fairy-tales, humorous 
and interpretative stories. There are only a few 
stories for children of kindergarten age that can 
be placed under the first three headings. A sim- 
ple myth which may be told is that of "Little 
Red Riding Hood." The stories that serve the 
same purpose as the hero-tales are simple inter- 
pretative stories of good children, such as "Busy 
Kitty, or How Cedric Saved His Kitten." In 
only a few of the well-known fables is the mean- 
ing evident enough to make them interesting at 
this age; such are "The Hare and- the Tortoise," 
"The North Wind and the Sun," and "The Lion 
and the Mouse." 

Most of the stories told in the kindergarten 
may be classified under the last three headings — 
fairy-tales, humorous stories, and interpretative 
stories. The best fairy-stories should be told 
often. The child realizes the irresponsibility, the 
unreality of the characters, and he enjoys the 
play of the unhampered imagination. He does 
not take the characters as models upon which to 
base his ideals of right and wrong. 

The humorous story generally gains its dis- 
tinctive character by the unusual response of 
some person in a familiar situation, or perhaps 
by the change of tone of the story-teller. It 
should never involve appreciable discomfo t to 
anyone; in the "Gingerbread Boy" the pr( lica- 
ment creates humor, because it is the little man 
himself who calls out, "I'm all gone !" Such 
stories should never be adapted to convey an 
ethical meaning: they are intended for pure 
humor. 

In the stories that deal with situations of 
everyday life, there should be no subtle, ethical 
complication, but an evident struggle of right 
and wrong, with the right always triumphant. 

The story which is told for the evident pur- 
pose of instruction has small place in any cur- 
riculum. 

Stories should occasionally be read to the chil- 
dren.- A story-teller's dramatic manner aids in 



As Mrs. Newell has not treated this suhject, we have found nothing more helpful for this important purpose than to 
condense the special report that was made not long ago to the International Kinde.-garten .Xssociation by its Committee on 
Subject-Matter and Method. Together with this should be read the list of "Fifty Best Kindergarten and Primary Stories," 
on page 328. 



K.N.— 15 



204 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



holding the child's attention, but sometimes his 
attention should be centered directly upon the 
story itself. At such times the story should be 
read, as the personality of the reader is not felt 
as much as that of a story-teller. Stories that 
depend for much of their attraction on their 
peculiar phrasing can be chosen for reading, 
good for this purpose. 

Choice of Language 

The language used in telling a story should be 
suitable to the theme of the story. The fable 
should be given in concise, terse language, the 
fairy-tale in beautiful, flowing language. For 
children of kindergarten age there should be 
little descriptive detail ; the action should be 
rapid. Repetition of rhythmical phrases is much 
enjoyed at this time. 

The stories from world literature should never 
be simplified to any appreciable e.xtent. It is 
better to wait until a child is able to appreciate 
the thought given, in a style suited to the sub- 
ject, rather than to lower its value by omitting 
the shades of meaning which are part of its 
beauty and strength. There are good stories 
well adapted to each age ; so that it is not neces- 
sary to give a weak version of what will later 
be enjoyed in a perfect form. Stories sometimes 
weakened to adapt them to kindergarten children 
are "Siegfried," "King Arthur," "Persephone," 
"The Golden Touch." 

Good Form 

Stories should have a definite plot, with intro- 
duction, complication, climax, and ending. The 
principal characters should stand out distinctly 
and all the rest be merely a setting. Little chil- 
dren enjoy particularly the repetition of a plot 
showing the principal characters in contrast, as 
in "Little One Eye, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes." 

THE LITTLE RED APPLE 

Once upon a time a little girl was walking under 
the trees in the orchard when she saw a round rosy 
apple hanging on the bough just over her head. 
"Oh, please, rosy apple, come down to me," she 
called, but the apple never moved. A little bird 
flew through the green leaves and lighted on the 
branch where the rosy apple hung. "Please, little 
robin, sing to the apple and make it come down to 
me," called the little girl. The robin sang and sang, 
but the apple never moved. "I'll ask the sun to help 
me," thought the little girl. "Please, Mr. Sun. shine 
on the rosy apple and make it come down to me," 
she called. The sun shone and shone, he kissed it 
first on one cheek and then on the other; but the 
apple never moved. Just then a boisterous wind 
came blustering by. "Oh, please, Mr. Wind, shake 
the rosy apple and make it come down to me," called 



the little girl. The wind swayed the tree this way 
and that, and down fell the rosy apple right in the 
little girl's lap. 

Methods in Story-Telling 

The number of stories told will depend upon 
the development of the children. As a general 
rule, some story should be'giveii every day, but 
the well-known and well-loved "best literature" 
stories should be repeated until the children can 
correct if one word is misplaced. In this way 
the stories are absorbed and made a vital part 
of the child's life, of his imagination, and his 
expression. 

Children should be encouraged to re-tell the 
simpler stories and to reproduce others dramat- 
ically. If the children do not readily recall a 
story, it is better to re-tell it than to drag the 
details from the children. 

Children should be encouraged to tell original 
stories. These may be very crude, but power 
to control imaginative thought and give it verbal 
expression comes gradually through e.xercise. 
Interpretation of pictures helps the child to de- 
velop creative power in story-telling. The fol- 
lowing was told by a boy of four, about Millet's 
picture entitled "First Step": 

Once there was a papa, and mamma, and a baby. 
The papa worked all day. and by and by mamma said, 
"Papa's coming," Papa took baby up, and they went 
in the house and had dinner. 

This simple tale follows the laws of good lit- 
erary form. 

Illustrations, preferably in paper-cutting, may 
be made by the children for the stories, songs, 
and rhymes. If these are bound together in book- 
form, the children will repeat the song or story 
to the family. 

A story-teller's manner has much to do with 
the interest of the story. One who e.xpects to 
impress her hearers must believe that the story 
is worth telling, that she is giving the highest 
and best of the world's thought, and that it can 
be imparted in no other way. She must believe 
that she can tell it so that the listeners will get 
the full value of the story. She must know the 
story well, not just memorize the words, but 
visualize it clearly. She must know why she 
tells it, must know the main point and how to 
emphasize it. She must feel and enjoy the story 
so much that she will be expressive in tone, face, 
and manner. 

"My mother has the prettiest tricks 
Of words and words and words. 
Her talk comes out as smooth and sleek 
As breasts of singing birds. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



205 



"She shapes her speech all silver fine, 
Because she loves it so ; 
And her own eyes begin to shine 
To hear her stories grow. 

"And if she goes to make a call. 
Or out to take a walk, 
We leave our work when she returns 
And run to hear her talk. 



"We had not dreamed that things were so 
Of sorrow or of mirth. 
Her speech is as a thousand eyes, 
Through which we see the earth." 

— Anna Hempstead Branch. 



The full value of stories and story-telling is 
lost when these faults are committed : Telling a 
story in a weak, rambling form ; telling so many 
stories that none of them is remembered: telling 
so few that a taste for them is not formed ; tell- 
ing stories that connect with the topic of the pro- 
gram instead of those that relate to the need and 
development of the child ; telling too many on 
the plane of everyday experience; telling stories 
that are adapted to older children. 

Attainments to be Expected of the 
Children 

Appreciation of a good short story. 

Ability to re-tell several stories, giving princi- 
pal incidents in correct sequence. 

Ability to create a simple, imaginative story. 

Ability to reproduce dramatically several short 
stories. 

Poems and Rhymes 

Mother Goose rhymes are good poetry for lit- 
tle children. Each one arouses the emotional re- 
action to some typical situation. Children who 
are not familiar with Mother Goose should be 
given many of these rhymes. 

Phrases, rhymes, stanzas, and poems which are 
descriptive of situations and which reveal moods 
should be given to the children to interpret their 
experiences. The difficulty and length of these 
will depend upon the development of the children. 
Longer poems should be read to the children. 



Single lines and stanzas may often be selected 
from children's songs for memorization. 

BOOKS OF REFERENCE 

Bah-EY, Carolyn Sherwin. For the Children's 
Hour. Firelight Stories. For the Story-teller. 
Stories and Rhymes for a Child. Milton Bradley 
Company, Springfield, Mass. 

Boston Collection of Stories. Hammett Company, 
Boston. 

Bryant, Sara Cone. How to Tell Stories to Chil- 
dren. Stories to Tell to Children. Stories for the 
Littlest One. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 

Harrison. Elizabeth. In Story Land. Central Pub- 
lishing Company, Chicago. 

Hoxie, Jane L. A Kindergarten Story Book. 
Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. 

Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, New York. 

Keyes. Angela M. Stories and Story-telling. D. 
Appleton and Company, New York. 

Lang, Andrew. Nursery Rhyme Book. Oak Tree 
Fairy Book. Longmans, Green and Company, New 
York. 

Lansing, M. F. Rhymes and Stories. Ginn and 
Company. Boston. 

Lindsay, Maud. Mother Stories. More Mother 
Stories. Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, 
Mass. 

. A Story Garden. Lothrop, Lee and Shep- 

ard Company, Boston. 

Mabie, Hamilton Wright. Fairy Tales Every Child 
Should Know. Doubleday, Page and Company, 
Garden City, N. Y. 

Palmer, Luella A. Play Life in the First Eight 
Years. Ginn and Company, Boston. 

Poulsson, Emilie. In the Child's World. Mil- 
ton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. 

RicH.\RDS, Laur.\ E. The Golden Windows. Little, 
Brown and Company. Boston. 

Scudder. Horace. Book of Folk Stories. Houghton 
MiiBin Company, Boston. 

Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Child's Garden of 
\'erses. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 

Tappan, Eva March. Folk Stories and Tales. 
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 

Tyndall, Jessie Carr. Memory Gems for Children. 
Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. 

Whittier. J. G. Child Life. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany. Boston. 

WiGGiN, Kate Douglas, and Smith, Nora Archi- 
bald. The Story Hour. Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, Boston. 

. Pinafore Palace. Doubleday, Page 

and Company. Garden City, N. Y. 

Posy Ring. Grosset and Dunlap Com- 



pany, New York. 
Wiltse, Sarah. Kindergarten Stories and Morning 
Talks. Ginn and Company, Boston. 



"I believe it is our duty to impress upon children 'the 
miraculous interestingness' of the common tilings of life. Of 
course, we can not do this unless we oxu-selves feel it, and this 
is the reason the object lesson usually fails." 

— Edna E. Harris. 



206 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



XII. WHEN THE CHILDREN ASK QUESTIONS 

BY TOE EDITORS 

"A question uttered or unexpressed is a prayer for knowledge. The moment when it arises in the soul 
should be sacred, almost like that of the hour of visitation of the Holy Ghost to the religious teacher." 

— G. Stanley Hall. 



A SKILLFUL advertisement, current a few months 
ago, pictured a father, seated, tearing his be- 
wildered hair, while his children besiege him with 
questions. The intimation was that if he would 
buy a certain set of books he could forever after 
secure^ himself from such a plight. Would that 
there were such an assured panacea ! Still bet- 
ter would it be if a talking machine could be 
invented which, even at the price of a periodic 
nickel in the slot, would do the business. Or if 
knowledge can be measured like gas, it might be 
emitted by the foot. Wisely does Dorothy Can- 
field Fisher remark that a "Professional Ques- 
tion-Answerer to Children" would make a for- 
tune — and earn it, too. 

Yours are not the only children who have 
driven their parents frantic by questions. In 
Doctors Hall and Smith's "Study of Curiosity 
and Interest," the following are some of the in- 
quiries that were propounded by children under 
school age : 

"Are black people made of black dust?" 
"Where does the stocking go when a hole 
comes in it?" 

"Am I wound up ? \\'ill I ever run down ?" 
"What is inside us that makes us laugh ?" 
"Shall I be a mamma when I grow up?" 
"Why couldn't George Washington tell a lie? 
Couldn't he talk?" 

"Where is to-morrow?" 

"What is the highest number you can possibly 
count?" 

"When you sneeze, where does the sneeze go 
to?" 

Questions a Hopeful Sign 

Seriously, though, we all know that if a child 
could buy answers to his questions out of a slot- 
machine, it would be the worse for him. 

Asking questions is the most respectable thing 
a child ever does. When he is practicing the 
habit he should not face a line of retreating backs, 
but a group of pleased and commending relatives. 
A child asking questions is giving proof of a 
number of gratifying qualities. 

In the first place, he is proving that he has a 
mind. Animals and imbeciles never ask ques- 



tions. Human beings that have stopped growing 
ask no questions. 

He is proving that he is hospitable to ideas. 
This is a rarely fine trait. 

Questions Are the Way to Life 

The best way to understand your child is to 
listen to his interrogations. "A shrewd parent 
can learn more from a child's questions," Kirt- 
ley says, "than the child can learn from his an- 
swers." To test this, quietly note down the next 
ten inquiries your young hopeful makes about 
any given topic. Your guidance of his whole 
future vocation may be wrapped up in them. 

What to Do with Questions 

The first thing to do with a child's questions 
is to sort them out. They fall into three classes: 
(l) Thoughtless questions, (2) impossible ques- 
tions, and (3) real questions. 

There are two ways to deal with thoughtless 
questions. One is to regard them as the efforts 
of a tired or lonely child to be sociable. \\'hen 
a child pours out a stream of inquiries without 
waiting for one answer before he propounds an- 
other question, what he often wants is just a 
little notice or some friendly conversation. Under 
such circumstances it is better to engage in a 
pleasant chat with him or to tell him a story. 
Occasionally, however, the listener may note that 
he is getting germs of a real question, in which 
case he will treat them as such, by methods ex- 
plained below. 

Impossible questions include questions that are 
unsuitable and questions that nobody can answer. 
The only questions that are unsuitable for a child 
to ask are those which he is too immature to 
comprehend. For I would never say "hush" or 
act the coward before any question. But I would 
postpone certain answers. If the question is one 
that nobody can answer, boldly say, "I don't know. 
Nobody knows." Yet even in such a case possi- 
bly a clue can be given. A child asks, "Who 
made God?" Mrs. Edith Mumford, a sensible 
English writer, suggests approaching an answe,' 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



207 



by calling the attention of the child to the fact 
that just as dresses come from cloth and cloth 
from the warehouse and the warehouse gets it 
from the factory and the factory from the sheep 
— and men can not "make" sheep, so always when 
we talk of "making" we are really only "chang- 
ing" things, and by and by we get back to some- 
thing in Nature that we can not make — face to 
face with life and growth. 

Dealing with Real Questions 

Real questions should be carefully collected. 
vSometimes they can not be answered at once. 
This is unnecessary, if the child recognizes that 
they are being saved for him. One mother jots 
inquiries down just as she does her grocery-list 
and keeps them for Father's return at night. An- 
other has an answering-bee on Sunday afternoon. 
Still another has them talked over by the entire 
family at table. 

The real reasons we parents don't answer ques- 
tions more genially is, frankly, because zvc do 
not know the answers. And this leads us to quote 
the sensible words of Dorothy Canfield Fisher as 
to the resources for such answers which are right 
at our hands, if we weren't too lazy to use them. 

"Take the simplest expedient first. It is aston- 
ishing how many questions can be answered, how 
much information acquired, and how alertness of 
mind can be fostered by the use of a fairly large 
dictionary. And yet the average family either 
does not own a good dictionary, or consults it 
only at rare intervals, to ascertain the spelling 
of a difficult word. A child hears the main high- 
way spoken of by an elderly person as the 'turn- 
pike.' 'Why is it called the "turnpike," Aunt 
Sarah?' Aunt Sarah doesn't know, she's sure — 
never thought of it before — it just is the turn- 
pike. Mother doesn't know, either, but, quickly 
turning to good account the stirrings of intellec- 
tual curiosity of the child, reaches for the dic- 
tionary and with the child looks up the word. 
The result is not only an interesting bit of in- 
formation acquired, but the historical sense of 
the little brain has been improved, and (most 
important of all) the habit of persistence in the 
search for knowledge has been strengthened and 
encouraged. Now notice by what simple means 
this was accomplished. Almost anybody, even 
the busiest -mother, can find a few minutes in 
the course of the day to consult a dictionary. 

How to Use a Reference-Set 

"Of course, an encyclopedia is a bigger store- 
house of knowledge than a dictionary, and though 



it costs more, it seems to me that a good ency- 
clopedia is almost as necessary an article of fur- 
niture as a dining-room table in a home where 
children are being brought up. Indeed, it is a 
sort of dining-room table, on which is spread a 
bounteous feast, open to all who will give them- 
selves the trouble to sit down and partake. Cer- 
tainly an encyclopedia of some sort is more neces- 
sary for grov^'ing children than rugs on the floors 
or curtains at the windows. 

"But there is only one variety of encyclopedia 
that will do. I mean a used set ! Except in its 
first newness, a clean, fresh-looking book of ref- 
erence is a shame to any family. .\ thumbed, 
dog's-eared encyclopedia that opens with a meek 
limpness and lies flat open at any page with 
broken-back submission is the kind I mean." 

Answering One's Own Questions 

While clear, intelligible answers are always a 
child's due, it is usually better to get the child 
to help answer his own questions. Even when 
you give a reply, ask the question back to see if 
he understands well enough to put his knowledge 
into words. The dictionary habit and the ency- 
clopedia habit are indispensable to form early, if 
one is to keep a questioning child. 

But, concludes Mrs. Fisher, although books 
are precious mines of information, "they are not 
the only, or even the best, educational material 
available for the question-answerer at home. 
There is much talk nowadays about 'nature-study' 
and the value of going straight with the child to 
original sources for such study. This is all true. 
The excellence of studying trees, flowers, and 
insects at first hand can scarcely be exaggerated. 

"The principle of question-answering as a 
means of education applies to nearly all the ele- 
ments of everyday life. Instead of breathing a 
sigh of relief when a child's question can be 
stifled and silenced by the blanket-answer, 'Oh, 
that's the nature of it,' his mother ought to re- 
gard each query as another thread in the clue 
which, held firmly in his- little hand, will lead him 
through the labyrinth of indifference and mental 
sloth to conquer and slay the monster, Ignorance. 

The Results of Question-Answering 

"There are several delightful by-products to 
this system of question-answering. One is that 
the average mother will find it almost as satis- 
factory as the child to gain a knowledge of the 
genesis of many of the articles she so commonly 
uses and about which she is so ignorant. Another 
is the growth on the child's part of a disposition 
to use his holidays and leisure time in a rational 



208 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



way, wliich will give him lasting satisfaction, in- 
stead of always turning instinctively to the idle, 
exciting, and profitless frequenting of so-called 
places of amusement. Still another, is the habit 
of steady and purposeful observation, which is 
insensibly acquired by attention given at once 
to any chance phenomenon. 

"But perhaps the most important result, when 
the mother voluntarily assumes the role of pro- 
fessional question-answerer, is the intimacy with 
her children which is engendered by the habit. 



If, hand in hand with them, she has sought out 
the reason why milkweed seeds have down on 
them, and why a three-legged stool will stand 
firmly on uneven ground, it is most likely that 
when the moinent comes for an inquiry into the 
darker mysteries and disappointments of life, she 
may have the poignant satisfaction of feeling her 
child's hand reach out instinctively and grasp 
hers in the hour of trial. And no greater reward 
than this can crown the efforts of a mother's 
life." 



XIII. THE RELIGION OF A LITTLE CHILD 



It has taken the race thousands of years to ar- 
rive at the religious ideas that are found in the 
highest form in Christianity. We can not expect 
to transplant them, as adults apprehend them, 
into the minds of little children. 

What are they prepared to understand? When 
is the right time to teach a child about God? 
What can we teach children that will not have 
to be unlearned as his mind matures? 

These are some of the questions that we have 
to face in the religious training of home and 
Sunday-school. We know that a wonderful order 
reigns throughout the universe. It holds the 
stars in their places and governs the form and 
growth of every living thing. It is no evasion 
of the truth to teach that this ruling Force is 
God. 

The One Religious Truth to Teach a Child 

He who made cares for what He made. He 
is wise. He both loves and knows. We are His 
children. He loves us. Children love and trust 
their fathers. They leave many things to his 
judgment and love, knowing he will do what is 
best for his children. In like manner, many 
things are left to the Heavenly Father, trusting 
that He knows, cares, and works. 

This is the religious philosophy of a grown 
person, stated in childli'.ve terms. It is the best 
interpretation of God, that of a loving father to 
his children. It is one that can be filled in and 
modified as a child grows in knowledge and power 
to think. Moreover, it is one that enlists feeling. 

Teaching a Little Child to Pray 

Prayer is talking to God. It is asking Him 
for what we need, and thanking Him for His 
gifts to us. It is a natural conception for a child 
who both asks and thanks its earthly father. 
Children imitate and participate in what grown 
people do. This holds true for prayer. It would 
be hard for a mother or father to teach a child 



to be reverent without at the same time being an 
example of reverence. 

Mrs. A. wished the thought of God to come to 
her little girl in a natural way. The occasion 
came when Olive was not yet three years old. 
They were visiting, and bedtime had come. Mrs. 
A. put Olive to bed, and left her alone as usual, 
but when the electric light was switched off, it 
left her in sudden and unaccustomed darkness, 
for at home there was a gas-jet turned down 
burning in the hall throughout the evening. Olive 
cried out to her mother that she was afraid to 
stay alone in the dark. Her mother told her 
there was nothing to be afraid of and left her. 
Olive heard dogs barking in the distance, and 
called her mother again, giving as a reason for 
wanting company that she was afraid the dogs 
would get in and bite her. Hearing a train puff- 
ing, she was afraid the engine might come in 
the house, etc. 

No argument would drive away her fears. 
Finally Mrs. A. said, "But }-ou are never alone. 
Someone is always with you." The baby's inter- 
est was excited at once. "Who is it ?" she asked. 
Then Mrs. A. told her a story of Someone who 
made many things that Olive loved. She re- 
minded her of the birds and squirrels that lived 
in the trees about their summer cottage, of the 
trees themselves, of the flowers that grew about 
it, of the grass on which she rolled and played, 
and told her that this God, this Heavenly Father, 
made them and loved them all. Moreover, he 
made Olive and her father and mother, and every 
one in the wide world. 

The child was absorbed in the story, and at 
the end. when her mother said. "He would not let 
anything harm you. when He made and loves 
you," she seemed satisfied. Then her mother 
said, "I can ask Him to take care of you while 
I am away. Shall I ?" Olive said, "Yes, ask 
Him." After her mother had asked, in a short 
prayer, she left the child content. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



209 



The next night when the light was turned 
off Olive said, "Talk to God again. Mother." 
This was the beginning of the nightly prayers, 
followed after a time by the little girl's own pe- 
titions for what she wished, and still later by 
thanks for her pleasures. 

It is good for the mother to thank God in 
simple words for things that her child has en- 
joyed. God, as the Inspirer of good deeds and 
right feelings, can be approached in the same 
way; first by the mother, and later the child 
herself can make her own prayer. In this way 
the prayer becomes not something formal and 
artificial, but sincere and natural.* 

In addition to these spontaneous prayers in 
original wording, there are choice forms of 
prayer to be found, some of which follow. 

A GRACE AT TABLE 

Lord Jesus, be our Holy Guest, 
Our morning Joy, our evening Rest; 
And with our daily bread impart 
Thy love and peace to every heart. 



• This simple discussion is supplemented by other papers 
in the section on "Moral and Religious Training," in volume 
II of this Manual. 



MORNING PRAYER 

God, Our Father, hear me. 

Keep me safe all day. 
Let me grow like Jesus, 

In the narrow way. 
Make me good and gentle. 

Kind and loving too. 
Pleasing God in all things 

That I say or do. 
All that makes me happy 

Comes from God above ; 
So I thank Thee, Father, 

For Thy care and love. 



EVENING PRAYER 

Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray thee. Lord, my soul to keep. 
When in the morning light I wake. 
Help me the path of love to take, 
And keep the same for Thy dear sake. 



A CHILD'S PR.\YER 

Be beside me in the light. 
Close beside me all the night. 
Make me gentle, kind, and true, 
Do what mother bids me do, 
Help and cheer me when I fret, 
And forgive when I forget. 



"It makes very little difference what people think about 
God if they do not know God." — Una Hunt. 



"Where superstitious servants take more interest in the 
child's religious hfe than do his parents, we have the child 
whose life is darkened by the fear of an omnipotent ogre. 
The life of the spirit can not be trusted to the hireling." 

— Henry F. Cope. 



210 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



si m 
o t. 

to a 



FIFTH YEAR 5 S 






to 



m 



XIV. DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE FIFTH YEAR 



Physical Development 

Although the period of most rapid increase in 
weight and height is from birth to two years, 
yet each year brings a great accession in growth. 
Also the proportions are changing somewhat, the 
body being somewhat more slender and the legs 
and arms slightly longer in proportion to the 
trunk and head than in the earlier years. This 
change makes children more agile on their feet 
and more disposed to dancing-steps in games. 

The growth of fibers of connection in the brain 
causes an increase in the power of coordinating 
movements, such as are called for in skipping, 
which is now easily mastered. 

Hurdle-leaping is a game much enjoyed in our 
home. The children personate horses in a cir- 
cus. An older child or grown person holds a 
long stick like a cane horizontally and low enough 
for the children to leap over easily and r-aises 
it slightly for each successive round until the 
limit is, reached. Different gaits are used also, 
walking, running, cantering, and trotting (run- 
ning with short steps on tiptoe). 

Throwing-games with balls and bean-bags are 
good fun and good exercise. Tie a barrel-hoop 
to swing from the limb of a tree and see who 
can throw the ball or bean-bag through it. Place 
a box within easy throwing distance and see 
how many balls or bags can be thrown in with- 
out missing. A football is a splendid plaything 
now for both kicking and throwing. A large 
ball of denim stuffed with clipped rags is good 
for indoor play. A large rubber ball lends it- 
self to bouncing against the wall and on the floor. 

All that is said of climbing, swinging, and 
balancing plays for the three-year-olds holds 
good still. The reader is referred again to the 
use of simple homemade apparatus, such as the 
seesaw, rail for walking, slanting ladder and 
horizontal ladder, swing and trapeze, all of which 
can be managed in a small yard, porch, or play- 
room. (See "Our Home Gymnasium," page 277, 
and "Playthings Which the Father Can Make," 
pages 149 and 375,) 

Thinking and Questioning 

Children at this age are making great efforts 
to piece together the unrelated and to get ex- 



planations for the puzzling breaks in meanings, 
and many mysterious occurrences. Each new 
experience has to be fitted in with something 
familiar to which it seems drawn. Things must 
be made to "square up." 

Said four-year-old Francis while taking his 
bath, "Mother, why does this water take the 
shape of the tub? I lie in it and I don't take 
its shape?" 

Harlow at the same age leaned a meditative 
head on hand when some reference was made 
to "last summer," and said 

"Was I here last summer?" 

"Yes." 

"Was I here the summer before that?" 

"Yes, you were here then." 

"Was I here the summer before that?" 

"Yes, that summer too." 

"Was there a time when I wasn't here ?" 

"Yes." 

"Where was I when I wasn't here?" 

"Were yon here then ?" 

"Was there a time when yo}i were not here?" 

"What was here then?" 

"Was there a time when God wasn't here?" 

This is an example of logical questioning. 
Harlow really was curious to know. Questioning 
of three-year-old children has no such motive. 
They merely question to get an answer, and any 
answer will do,. This is the time for stories with 
sequence and repetition, like "The Old Woman 
and her Pig," and others of the "Little Stories 
That Grow Big," in the first volume of the 
Bookshelf. 

This hunger for knowing more about the mean- 
ing of things makes of the child a ceaseless ques- 
tioner. He asks questions, not as often as in the 
previous year, to get "any answer at all," but out 
of a real curiosity. For this reason they deserve 
to be answered as clearly as possible. 

Keep curiosity alive. It is a great asset. Pity 
the child in whom it has been stunted. It is the 
source of knowledge. 

I have been concerned about a fifteen-year-old 
boy in whom it is. to say the least, unawakened, 
or perhaps "stunted" would be the right word. 
He came from a country home where he had few 
if any books or pictures, no stimulus to think or 
study, and very little variety in occupation. He 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



211 



has never voluntarily looked at a book or picture 
since he came to town. Yet there are plenty of 
them — current magazines, stories of adventure, 
and a wealth of material. But what is more 
serrous, he a^ks no questions. Yet he is sur- 
rounded by things -th^t are new to him. Even 
on long rides into the mountains, which he never 
before saw, he gives no signs of wonder. 

I tell this to emphasize the enormous advantage 
a child has in being a companion of adults who 
respond to his questions by answering them or 
by asking him some that will make him observe 
and think. Children have a right to short cuts to 
knowledge from the experiences of older people. 



Imitative Learning 

Just as in the previous year, the child is "trying 
on" the attitudes of those who surround him, 
speaking their speech, acting as they act, adopting 
as far as he can grasp them the ideas and feelings 
of grown people. Let us take ■home this lesson 
again, that v,'-e must furnish the best possible 
models of courtesy, friendliness, cheerfulness, and 
self-control, as well as the more obvious ways 
of good English, good enunciation, pleasant voice, 
and correct carriage. For nothing escapes the 
child's keen observation and the innate tendency to 
reproduce. 



XV. HOW THE CHILD PLAYS DURING THE FIFTH YEAR 



I.N' the previous section we noted a development 
in imaginative play. We saw the three-year-old 
using a great variety of objects as symbols of 
other things, and expanding .these ^suggestions 
into plays repeated over and over again. We 
also noted the beginnings of constructive play, 
in which these chance likenesses are improved 
upon by some slight change to make the resem- 
blance to the real thing closer. 

When this kind of inventiveness becomes 
marked, the real kindergarten age of constructive 
play has begun. The imagination did all the 
transformation in the earlier stage; the tiling was 
not changed: now the thing itself is worked upon 
by the little player and is outwardly changed to 
make it fit more closely his image of the other 
thing he sees in it. 

Materials need to be chosen now to give this 
new power scope. Children are often frustrated 
in their attempts to do things by a lack of easily 
workable material. "The reach exceeds the 
grasp." Tears and temper follow upon the dis- 
appointment when failure ends a cherished pur- 
suit. Now is the time when a certain degree of 
manual skill is a means to an end eagerly sought. 
It is a time when knots must be tied and untied, 
when scissors are wanted to shape particular, 
definite forms, when paste is needed to stick 
things together, and now and then bits of cloth 
must be sewed together to make a string for an 
apron, or to put two pieces of cloth together 
for a tent, or for some such purpose. 



It is worth while to take a little time here 
to teach children to tie knots, lace shoes or 
blouses, to hold scissors easily (with the trick of 
turning the paper to cut in curves), to hold the 
hammer by the end to get more weight in the 
blow, to hold a big pencil and swing it round in 
curves, to get round effects easily with a big 
sweep ; in short, to help children to get control 
of the technique of some of the acts that are 
needed daily in their attempts to carry on inde- 
pendent play-constructions. 

Yet in all their work, beware of fine move- 
ments that strain the nerves which govern the 
movements of eyes and fingers; let us have no 
sewing of pricked kindergarten cards, no sewing 
with any but big needles, no pinching of small 
pencils. 

Exactness must not be expected. 

The same materials are desirable that were 
recommended for the fourth year, but these chil- 
dren in the fifth year use them so much more 
definitely that additional suggestions are now 
made for play with blocks, clay, sand, cutting, 
drawing, and painting, as well as making things 
from the materials commonly found in every 
household. 

Companionship, material, and opportunity for 
constructive play, these are the great needs of 
this period. 

Restlessness, mischievousness, fretfulness, all 
disappear as if by magic when these conditions 
are provided. 



212 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAIv 



XVI. MORE BUILDING PLAYS 



We need offer no apology for continuing the 
subject of building as a constant employment for 
children throughout the kindergarten age, and 
even beyond. Its charm may wane for a sea- 
son, but it inevitably returns. One memory re- 
mains vivid, of our residence in a junior college 
dormitory, when Olive was three years old and 
her favorite occupation of building went on often 
in her father's study. The big boys who came 
for interviews with the President remained to 
play with the tiny child and her attractive heap 
of blocks. I have often come in to find a couple 
of them sprawled upon the floor, vying with each 
other in producing the most wojiderful structures, 
and lingering until the Presidentess was forced 
to shoo them off to study hour. 

"What a kindergartner I would have made !" 
exclaimed the scholarly professor of mathematics 
as he gazed pridefully on a church-belfry adorned 
with tower and turret, built from these same 
blocks, forgetting that the kindergartner is an 
artist in children more than in architecture. For 
this is the art of it, — to give the touch here and 
there that will direct, without seeming to dictate, 
the activity of a little child into the way that 
will lead him farther on his voyage of discovery. 
And of course the same is true of the mother, 
whose teaching is of necessity (what it should be 
ideally) incidental. 

What Blocks to Select 

The plain cubes, bricks, and long slats of the 
three-year-old's play-chest should be supplemented 
by more shapes and a larger quantity of blocks. 
Cubes cut in halves diagonally and cubes cut in 
halves vertically give triangular blocks for gable- 
roofing, and square table-like blocks fill in chinks 
in many places, while the bricks cut in half along 
their length give the square post, column, or 
square prism, according as you choose to name 
it. It is important to the fitness and fittingncss 
of the building that these blocks be exactly pro- 
portioned to each other, else they will not sup- 
port and maintain the structures evenly, a point 
as necessary in building for education as it is 
for the contractor's trade. 

The wooden peg-lock blocks are good material, 
though few four-year-old children have the logic 
and foresight needed to adapt them to house- 
building. Using the pegs to hold them fast, they 
can utilize them in simple structures, merely lay- 
ing them like other blocks. They have the good 
quality, spoken of in the preceding paragraph, of 
being well proportioned. 



Happy the child who can possess a chest of 
Hennessy blocks, or a couple of boxes of the 
enlarged fifth and si.xth kindergarten gifts, which 
contain the shapes mentioned above in sufficient 
quantity to give two or three children scope in 
building at the same time. For, as we know to 
our perplexity, the tool or toy that one child 
has chosen becomes at that moment the one and 
only thing that will satisfy little brother or sister 
or visitor of tender years, so strong is the force 
of suggestion. 

If the nursery can have an outfit of the Hill 
blocks, it will be royally equipped with building 
material for children of all ages. These last- 
named have the advantage of being large and 
heavy, and give a distinct weight to be lifted. 
This not only affords real muscular exercise, but 
makes houses, barns, stores, and what not, large 
and stable enough to be lived in by the builders. 

Other Building Material 

The sense of reality is vastly increased if chil- 
dren have other material that, like this, will 
make good-sized buildings. Children always love 
a little enclosed and roofed-in shelter in which 
they can creep. Our home in the foothills has 
been the scene of many varieties of such shelters. 
Caves have been dug out of side hills, now and 
then falling in on the occupants, who emerged 
with ears and hair full of clay, but unhurt and 
undaunted; huts have been built of brush in the 
laurel thickets; gypsy tents have been patched up 
from sacking; and just now a large shelter is 
being erected from packing-cases and bits of 
board. "Real rooms, Mother, one for each of 
us," says Olive. 

Pieces of wood from three to four feet long 
may be laid on one another, pig-pen or corncob 
fashion, like an open log-house, and roofed over. 
This will not only satisfy the children's desire 
to have a house large enough to get into, but will 
be invaluable for the physical exercise employed. 
Stooping, rising, lifting, arm-stretching, the work 
involved gives the finest of muscular training. 
Moreover, it has this advantage over ordinary 
gymnastics in which the exercise is often half- 
hearted: this is done with mind alert and spirits 
buoyant. Enthusiasm is high in feeling that 
something is being done that is worth while. In 
short, the child's whole self is at work. 

■When Mother Takes a Hand at Building 

"Please come play, too. Mother." It did seem 
as if I could not spare the time, but the appeal 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



213 



was too heartfelt. So down I dropped, thinking, 
"Now we'll see if Mother's one-time kindergart- 
ner's skill in showing children better types of 
building than they would have found is all we 
used to claim for it." 

"Let's see if we can make a porch like the one 
on the big school building," I said, and I began 
to lay the porch floor of bricks, preparatory to 
setting up the column-shaped blocks for pillars. 
"You pick out enough of the square prisms to 
go across this for pillars, and — " "Oh, no, 
Mother, not that way. I want to do it another 
way. I know exactly what I want to do now." 
"But I thought you wanted some help," said I. 
"Well, I did, but now I can do this, thank you 
just the same." The last remark evidently meant 
to soothe Mother's wounded feelings, if so be 
she had any. 

This kind of experience was so often repeated 
during the kindergarten stage of our little girl's 
childhood that, as her mother saw, a more fit, 
shapely, realistic bit of building grow than her 
own grown-up invention could have contrived, a 
suspicion, entertained long years before, became 
deepened into a conviction — namely, that given 
material as shapely as these bricks, tablets, and 
columns, and plenty of time and freedom, a child 
is his own best teacher in the childish form of 
the building art. 

Of course, cooperation novir and then was help- 
ful, such as the start I gave when I suggested 
the school porch. Evidently at that particular 
moment she needed a stimulus of this sort. But 
the start once given by my suggestion, the method 
of arriving at the end in view began to shape 
itself at once, and she not only needed no adult 
advice, she even shook it off as if it irked her 
even to think the way might not be left to her 
own finding. 

Sometimes it is a help to propound problems 
to him like in kind to those he sets for himself, 
but with the addition of definiteness of statement, 
such as the following: 

"See if you can make a fence for your chicken- 
yard two bricks long on every side." 

"Let's build a chicken-run, the longest one you 
can make with eight bricks." 

"Lay a dancing-floor, using all these bricks, 
and make it square." 

"Now let's change it to an oblong one." 

"Let's build a lot of chimneys (or towers), the 
first one the smallest you can make and the next 
one bigger, until you get the tallest one that will 
stand." 

But in the main the problems evolved from a 
child's own impulse to represent that with which 



he is familiar are those that stimulate the most 
vital thinking.* 

The child of this age is an individualist and an 
egoist, in the sense that his keenest enjoyment 
comes from his sense of personal achievement. 
He also sees things with a vivid feeling of their 
meaning and but little appreciation of their wide 
relationships. The porch alluded to in the para- 
graph above may serve as an illustration. Most 
children at this time will make some such detail 
of a house with great pride and delight, quite 
satisfied without any house to go with it. A 
pair of steps, a doorway, a room, each is suffi- 
cient, standing alone. It either seems to his 
imagination complete, a meaning in itself, or else 
the house is implied in this part of it, which is 
a house-symbol, as it were. 

Later, we mark a new development which 
grows out of the skill acquired in making these 
isolated things; this new sign is that of organ- 
ization. A child who has discovered, either by 
chance or of a purpose, ways to represent these 
features of doorway, steps, porch, and room, soon 
gets new pleasure from his power to combine 
them into a new whole ; that is, he organizes 
them. When this power becomes marked, the 
child in question is entering the later kinder- 
garten period, dealt with at length in the next 
section. 

Stories Furnish Themes for Building-Plays 

Several of the old folk-tales, that ought to be 
in the repertoire of every teacher, owe part of 



• The grocery store may be made an individual project, 
each child building with Froebelian blocks counters and 
shelves, adding cans of fruit and vegetables and glasses of 
jelly represented by cylinders of the beads, large and small. 
Other material may be used with the blocks as the repre- 
sentation and play are carried forward and as the children 
discover a need for them. Real fruit, vegetables, and grains 
may be used, or clay fruit and vegetables may be made and 
ainted, and boxes and baskets constructed to hold these, 
lioney may be made, a pocketbook to carry it in, and a de- 
livery wagon for the goods. At the approach of the Christ- 
mas season the grocery store will be transformed into a toy 
shop and decorated and equipped with a large variety of 
toys. In the Spring the need for new clothing may lead to 
the building and equipping of a dry-goods or department 
store. 

Another project is laying out the farm, building fences, 
constructing the farm buildings, such as the farmer's house, 
the barn, the shed, the chicken-house. -An e-xcursion will 
be made to a farm if it can be provided for. The morning 
will be spent in playing in the hay, feeding the chickens, 
and getting as much valuable and happy farm experience as 
possible. On the following day the toy farm animals may 
be brought out and the child may build with blocks to pro- 
vide the animals with proper shelter, water troughs, and 
barnyards. Fields, gardens, and perhaps an orchard will be 
laid out and fenced in, and gradually a miniature farm will 
develop in the sand-table or in one corner of the room. 
Here, as in the grocery store, other materials may be com- 
bined with the blocks to complete the project. If the ex- 
cursion to the farm is not possible, and if a farm visit has 
not been a part of the experience, less time will be spent 
upon the problem, and_ only those phases of it will be re- 
produced in manual activity which seem most interesting and 
closest to the child's experience; for example, the construc- 
tion of the farmer's wagon bringing the produce into the 
grocery store, building a shelter for the toy animals, pro- 
viding for feeding and watering the toy animals. 



S: 



214 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



their charm to the suggestions they contain of 
housekeeping. They make good themes for rep- 
resentation with blocks. 

Using cubes, bricks, and long blocks freely to- 
gether, let the children see who can make a 
house that the old wolf cannot tear down, though 
he "huff and puff" as much as he will. 

Snow White and the Seven Little Dwarfs lived 
in a cottage with fireplace and dresser to be kept 
in order, seven little beds to be made, floor to be 
strewed daily with "golden sands." Who can 
make the dresser in which Snow White put the 
dishes after she had washed them? Who can 
lay a floor, and who will make seven little beds 
to arrange on it? 

The old favorite "Three Bears" has three beds, 
three chairs, three bowls, all of "big, middle, and 
little sizes," to be imitated. Bowls might be 
made of plasteline or clay. 

All Making is Solving Problems 

I never can decide whether to laugh or to cry 
when some parent or teacher refers to the pri- 
mary - school curriculum as being "work," in 
contradistinction to the kindergarten building, cut- 
ting, sewing, and making as "play." The im- 
plication is that it is all perfectly easy, requiring 
no effort, no concentrated attention, and on the 
whole just filling in time until the real business 
of school begins, which in its turn gets its value 
from being a "preparation for life." And when, 
pray, I ask, does living begin? 

No; the child who is patiently trying, choosing 
a brick now, and a half brick then, to fill some 
space, or measuring the side of a half-done en- 
closure with his eye, and then selecting enough 
of the right length of blocks to fill it, is doing 
thinking of a high order. He is setting prob- 
lems for himself, and then solving them by the 
hour, day after day. 

An Instance of Self-Building 

While I write, a little four-year-old boy sits on 
the floor beside me. He wandered in from a 
neighbor's home, and I handed him a box of 
blocks of a great many sizes and shapes. He 
played without interruption for half an hour; 
when I turned around he showed me a little 
cannon he had made by balancing a long cylin- 
drical block on an axle made of a burned match 
stuck between two large button molds for wheels. 
Near it was a small house, in which he had 
utilized several blocks of different dimensions 
very cleverly. 

We talked a little about these things, and then 



I turned back to my typewriter, leaving him no 
suggestion as to what to do next. Becoming 
absorbed, I forgot all about the little fellow until, 
darkness gathering, I looked at my watch and 
found three-quarters of an hour had elapsed. 
To my surprise, he was still there, contemplating 
with satisfaction a structure of some preten- 
sions. 

I thought it was a church, seeing a fine portal 
with square columns, round columns, and roof, 
built in front of the large box, which served as 
auditorium. I saw rows of seats within, too; 
but no, it was a "movie theater." 

I could not help wondering at the shapeliness 
of the little building, its fitness, and the evidences 
it showed of thought and skill. Here was an 
illustration to my hand of this text: the right 
viatcrial is a stimithts to creating. 

This child, like all others in whom a purpose 
is born, knew neither fatigue, nor flight of time, 
nor loneliness, but was "possessed" by an idea, 
completely lost in working it out. The concen- 
trated work meant control, will, persistence. The 
preliminary handling of 
the various blocks served 
to make him acquainted 
with their possibilities. 

After some experimental 
building, he made a door- 
way, which some inner 
sense told him would be 
pretty if the round columns 
and square columns were 
placed in pairs opposite 
each other. 

This portal probably sug- 
gested the movie theater. 
Casting about for some- 
thing large enough and hollow, his eye fell on the 
empty box. This called in turn for seats. Again 
a bit of observation and thinking to pick out the 
best blocks for these and to adjust them in two 
rows, with an aisle between. 

Seeing me still busy, he lay back on the floor 
and chatted and hummed his satisfaction until I 
turned around. I was impressed by the value 
to the youngster of the knowledge gained, the 
thinking done, the persistence exercised, the pur- 
poseful control; yet when all is said, we must 
include the training of the affections. 

After all, the best the children get out of some 
of their imitative plays lies in this last item. We 
overlook the fact that in all the things that sur- 
round us, there is a kind of "dearness," coming 
from association through use, which constitutes 
their meaning, and that these playful makings 
deepen and define these feelings. 




BUREAU 




llAMMhK AM) .\ A i LS.— UKl nR A I Kl> l'Al'1-.K 1 )1SHES,— I LA V Mulil-L.^ 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



SI- 



XVII. HAMMER AND NAILS 



Children get a great deal of pleasure in play- 
ing carpenter. There is a sense of reality about 
the wooden toy that is lacking in the things of 
paper. Odds and ends of lumber, the waste from 




BEN'CH-STOP 

measured lengths, may be bought cheaply at al- 
most any lumber yard. We had a load of this 
kind put into our cellar for kindling, and Helen 
and I picked out the best of it to make still 
more furniture for the doll-house. 

Tools 

We had a hammer, a bit and brace, borrowed 
from father's tool-box. and a saw of her own 
with a narrow point. It is a Ball saw, made for 




BED 

this kind of work. We used the back steps for 
a work-bench, .^.t first Helen held the boards 
steady while I did the sawing, then she took her 




T.\BLE 

turn at the saw. Then I made a bench-stop like 
the diagram. This helped hold the boards firmly 
by bracing them against angle D. 




CH.\IR 



A and B are two blocks 2x2x4 inches. C 
is a block 4x4x1 inches. The stop is shown in 
the diagram fitting over the bench or table, X. 

We used small wire-nails, but the wrought-iron 
finishing nails are better, because they do not 
bend so easily under ill-aimed blows. 

Some of our bits of board were 2 x J'S-inch 
stufif. We cut the wider 
stuff into two- and five- 
inch lengths ; these 
worked up into table- 
Jops, bottoms of beds, 
piano-backs, etc. The 
square-ended stutif we 
cut into one- and two- 
inch lengths for legs. 

The furniture was 
rather rough and home- 
ly, and w-e decided to 
use a small plane to 
smooth the pieces the 
next time. For these 
we used coarse sand- 
paper. Some we stained mahogany-color, some 
oak. White enamel paint would make the bed- 
room furniture really pretty. 

We planned to go to a carpenter-shop and or- 
der poplar stock one-third of an inch thick, and 
make some furniture for her little cousins. This 
material is soft enough to work easily, and has 
a good grain and color. 

Wagons 

Materials; Cigar box and four flat tape-spools, 
bits of leather, and wire-nails with good heads. 

Place wheels on side of box with hole over edge 
of bo.x-bottom. Drive a nail through a bit of 
folded leather, put through hole in spool, and 
drive into edge of box-bottom. A screw-eye 
screwed into front makes a superior fastening 
for the string that pulls the wagon. Large but- 
ton molds make good wheels, but empty type- 
writer-ribbon spools of metal are the best of all. 

Sailboat 

Materials: Thin (three-eighths-inch) board about 
4 X 10 inches. Dowel-rod eight inches long. 
Cloth square, 6x6 inches. Tacks. Small screw- 
eye. Glue. 

Measure end of board. Find point half way 
across and place dot. Measure same distance on 



2l6 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



other end. Measure a like distance from corners 
down sides of board and dot. Place ruler from 
dot at center of end to dot at side of board. 
7K- 




DIAGRAM OF SAIL BOAT 



Draw a line. Repeat on other side and same at 
other end. Saw off these two right-angle tri- 
angles. Place ruler from point to point of this 
board. Draw a line to bisect the angles and con- 
nect them. Place a dot on this line three inches 
from one end. Bore a hole. Insert dowel-rod 
for mast. Glue it in. Cut square cloth in half, 
to make two triangles. Fasten one of the straight 
edges of one of the triangles to the mast with its 
other straight edge parallel with the Ixiat. Tie a 
string to the loose corner, and run the string 
through a screw-eye near the back of the boat. 



Plant Stand 

This would make a good Christmas or birth- 
day present for some grown person. 

Saw a square from a board 6 inches wide. Saw 
four cubes from material one-inch square. Nail 
or glue the small pieces to the corners of the large 
square, to serve as "feet." Four spools might be 
used instead of small cubes. 

Spools and Their Uses 

One day I took Nancy with me to the Red 
Cross rooms, and gave her the empty spools to 
play with. The manager said we were welcome 
to take them home. They made such good build- 
ings that I got paint and turpentine and stained 
them in bright colors. Nancy used them for col- 
umns, gate posts, and organ pipes. With card- 
board for floors and roofs, they made ornamental 
houses. 

One day she made a cupboard that she wanted 
to keep, and I showed her how to use liquid 
glue, putting it on the ends of the spools with a 
match, and then planting the cardboard on top 
of it. 



XVIII. MAKING THINGS OUT OF PAPER 



One of the most profitable occupations for chil- 
dren is found in making things out of the odds 
and ends that we throw in the trash-basket. 

There is in our house a certain low closet shelf, 
where we all go to find string, wrapping-paper, 
and empty bo.xes. On the shelf above, nails, 
tacks, sandpaper, hammer, and saw are in the com- 
pany of the paste tube and glue bottle. Here the 
children find the materials and tools for many 
little toys and constructions. 

The most recent demands made on it were for 
the construction of scenery for a puppet theater 
that Helen and Sara were fitting up. Big sheets 



of brown wrapping-paper were wanted, to be 
painted to represent a wooded valley. Pasteboard 
dress-boxes were used for side scenes, which 
Mother helped them cut like great oak trees. 
Small boxes were made into cots and tables, and 
the ragbag was rummaged for bits of khaki and 
scarlet cloth, by which token you may know this 
was to be a Red Cross play. 

A match-box made an ambulance with big but- 
ton molds for wheels. Paper fasteners were 
obtained from father's desk to fasten the top to 
the body. 

Mother offered her best French crayons to color 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



217 



the scenes, and when the boys of the neighbor- 
hood came around and saw the girls laying on 
the color, they wanted to take a hand, quite sure 
they could beat the girls at it. Mother indulged 
them in more crayon, and soon David and Tommy 
and Jack were lying on the porch floor reveling 
in brilliant color effects, partly derived from their 
"inner consciousness" and partly from the land- 
scapes that Mother got down from the wall for 
hints on sky and hills. 

The best scene was voted on and then the 
boys wandered away, bent on their own schemes. 
Next, little Jimmy came pattering up the steps in 
search of occupation, and to him was offered the 
job of putting the ambulance together. Eight- 
year-old Helen very patronizingly explained how 
he could put a pencil point through the hole in 
each button mold, to mark the place for a hole 
on the box, where he might punch it with a 
sharp-pointed nail ; and how to thrust the fasten- 
ers first through the button, then through the 
hole, how to bend the points back, etc., etc. 
Great fun for little Jimmy and a piece of routine 
work shifted from Miss Helen to someone else. 

Meanwhile, Mother sat sewing by the window, 
thinking what a blessing was that closet shelf 
and offering her advice when asked or unasked. 

One aspect of this utilization of common things 
is that every little bit of string, or paper, or 
cloth, or spool, though apparently worthless in 
money, has cost many people weary hours of 
toil. Helen and I often think of this when we 
make a game of hunting a thing down to its 
sources, and noting the many hands and processes 
through which it has passed. She has come to 
realize that even a shoe-box is no despicable 
thing. 

Once Mother found the tables turned unex- 
pectedly on her when she objected to buying 
something Helen wanted, because of the price. 
The little girl answered, "Why, Mother, I don't 
call that expensive. Just think of the people 
that have vi'orked on it — the man who sells it, 
the people that wove the cloth and dyed it, and 
the sheep the wool grew on, and the farmer 
that cut it oft' and took care of it. I don't call 
that expensive !" 

Match-Box Toys 

All children love to make something that will 
"go." A shop-made wagon will never quite take 
the place of one a child has made. The toys 
described below can be planned and made by any 
youngster with very little help. 

The materials needed are : Large-sized match- 
boxes of the kind that push open, a sharp-pointed 
bodkin, a hatpin or horseshoe nail for punching 



holes, brass paper-fasteners or laundry studs, 
button molds or milk-bottle tops, liquid glue, string, 
and a wire hairpin. 

Doll's Perambulator 

Place one match-box inside another at right 
angles to it, so that the inside one forms the 
hood. Glue in place. Punch holes in centers of 
four circles. Lay one on side of body of peram- 
bulator at front, one at back. Punch hole through 
center of circle and box. Put fastener in hole. 
Bend back ends of fastener. Punch holes for 
hairpin ends to go through for handle-bar. Bend 
hairpin and insert. 

Train of Cars 

Make a series of wagons and fasten them to- 
gether with bent pins for couplers. Make engine 
of a box with four wheels and a smaller box 
glued to back end for cab; spool in front for 
smokestack; tiny spools for sand-box and dome. 

Milk Wagon 

Use a box for body. Hold another upside 
down over it, to see where strips may be fastened 
at each corner to secure it. Cut four strips about 
four inches long and half an inch wide and 
glue on the inside to the body, one at each corner. 
Invert the other box and glue strips to its cor- 
ners, inside. Fasten string in front to pull by. 

IVheclbarroii) 

Take out one end of a match-box, cut off two 
corners from side next it. Glue two strips of 
heavy cardboard along sides of box extending 
about two inches in front, for handles. Punch 
hole in center of bottle-top, thread it on hair- 
pin. Punch two holes in sides of box at the 
back. Bend hairpin open. Bend ends at right 
angles and push them through these holes. 

A Delivery Wagon 

An automobile delivery wagon can be made 
by using the box for body. Loosen one end at 
two sides and open in line with bottom of box. 
Loosen opposite end at bottom. Cut it down 
middle to make two rear doors. Glue a piece of 
pasteboard as wide as the bottom of box and four 
inches longer to the bottom and the flap that has 
been bent down in front. This stiffens it to 
hold a smaller box, which can be glued to it on 
top. When this is quite dry fasten one pair of 
wheels to the back end of body and one pair to 
this engine-box. Stick a match through the bot- 
tom, slanting upward, with bottle top stuck on 
end for steering-wheel. A tiny square pillbox 
will make the driver's seat. This is too hard 



2l8 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



for a four-year-old to think out, but if parts are 
made ready he will enjoy putting them together. 

Folding and Cutting 

The kindergarten folding evolved by Froebel 
was a device at first to employ his pupils pleas- 
antly on rainy afternoons, when they could not 
have their customary excursions afield. Later 
he developed it elaborately into a long series of 
complicated folds— symmetrical ones that made 
little designs, and realistic ones that were called 
"life-forms." 

The life-forms seem most appropriate to little 
children and have been added to since his day. 
A few are given here. It will be necessary to 
have paper cut in accurate squares at first. 
Later, accurately cut oblongs can be used to bet- 
ter advantage. 

The younger children lack the control of eye 
and hand to do much folding, for it requires ex- 
actness. The forms given below can be done in 
rather heavy paper cut 5x5 or 6x6 inches. 

It will be noticed that one form grows out of 
the preceding, and leads up to another, which 
follows from it with but one slight step added. 
This fashion of working is in kindergarten par- 
lance "sequence." It is a very helpful method 
of leading children to overcome difficulties bit by 
bit. 

Easy Folding, Scries I 

One day a group of four children, the babies 
of the School of Education Kindergarten, went 
into the garden to pick nasturtiums, to carry to 
their mothers. I gave each one a paper and 
asked them if they could make something of it 
to carry the flowers in, so they would not wilt. 
They had been given no folding lessons, so the 
problem needed some thinking and experiment 
on their part. 

Fryar pinched his together at each corner into 
a dish-shape and asked for paste to make it fast. 
Bessie made hers into a roll, open at each end, 
and thought she could tuck the flowers inside. 
James made a kind of cornucopia of his and 
asked for pins to fasten it. Charles could think 
of no way, but decided to make his like James'. 
Donald folded his square in the middle, making 
it in the shape of a book. I was rather pleased 
to see them go to work in such direct and origi- 
nal ways to meet the difficulty, for it meant think- 
ing to make the means at hand meet the end. 

The next day they went into the garden to 
gather lettuce, and instead of repeating the work 
of the day before, I offered to show them how 
to make a little basket with a handle, somewhat 
in this fashion ; 



"Lay your papers on the table. Take the front 
edge (the one next to you) and fold it over till 
it touches the back edge and lies on top of it. 
Press down on the folded side of your paper till 
it lies flat. Now use your thumb-nail for a little 
tlatiron and smooth this edge 
still flatter. Here are two 
little squares. If you will r 
fold these in half, as you have ] 
done this paper, we can paste 
it in at the ends of this book- 
shaped paper to close them 
up. Here is a strip for a handle 
you would paste it." 



1 



Show me where 
(See Fig. I.) 
In this instance I did not show the children 
how to make the article until they had felt the 
need of it, and had tried to make something that 
would fill it in their own way. 

Sometimes I would put a finished thing on the 
table and say, "Would you like to make one like 
this?" and let them find out how to do it. In 
cither case they have to do some thinking, which 
is good for them. If the thing to be done is in 
the nature of putting parts together, as in the 
wagons described in a preceding section, it might 
be well to put a finished one before them, and 
lay the material down for them to build up one 
of their own. 

Fig. 2 shows the same sized square 
folded into a book. Pictures from 
magazines may be pasted in it to make 
a doll's scrap-book, or it may be cov- 
ered with make-believe writing, or pic- 
tures can be outlined in it to be colored 
liy the children with crayons. It is 
easier than the basket, but we needed 
the basket. 
Fig. 3 is the lower edge 
folded to the upper edge, and 
the whole opened. We call 
it a window. It might be 
made of the semi-transparent 
paper that cereal packages 
are wrapped in and a frame 
of thicker paper strips pasted 
around it. ^ 

Fig. 4 is folded by 
laying one corner of 
the square on the op- 
posite one, making a 
triangle. It makes a 
good shawl for an old- 
**" * lady clothes-pin doll. 

It is fun to fringe it by snipping slashes round 
the edge. 

Figs, sa and 5b show something that suggests a 
sailboat. Fold window, shawl, shawl made by two 





FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



219 





other opposite corners put together, open, and fold 
one corner to touch center. 





64 6 b 

Figs. 6a and 6b are steps in making an envelope 
into which a letter can be tucked. 



< 


''■ \'' 


> 


1/ 


\/ 


\ 



Fig. 7 becomes a valentine when 
a picture is pasted in the center. 





Figs. 8a and 8b are steps in making a pinvvheel. 
Cut in heavy lines and pin corners a, b, c, d to 
center. Thrust pin in end of rod, as in 8b. 

Easy Folding, Scries 11 

(Illustration on page 220) 

Fold as in Series I, front edge to back, right 
to left, making "window." Open. Fold front edge 
to meet the crease that runs from right to left 
through the center. Same with back edge ( Fig. 
2). Turn over and play with as tunnel; stand on 
end for cupboard doors (Figs. 3 and 4). Crease 
into square chimney (Fig. 5). 

Lay on table, doors down. Fold a short end to 
meet middle crease, same with opposite end ( Figs. 
6 and 7). Turn over for bridge (Fig. 8). 

K.N.— 16 



Suggestions for Play with These Polils 

The cupboard may have straight horizontal 
lines drawn on it for shelves, with apples, bottles 
of jam, etc., drawn on them. Fig. 6 may be 
called a toboggan, and made to slide down a 
smooth slanting surface. The tunnel may have 
toy cars pushed in and out of it, be put in sand- 
table as a bridge used over stream in sand. It 
may also serve as a chimney glued to a paper 
box for a house. 

A Good Barn or House 

Fold as for bridge. Open (Fig. 9). Mark the 
three creases on two opposite sides with pencil. 
Cut in marks. Pinch middle crease and lap the 
four free squares over each other, two middle ones 
first, then end ones. Fig. 10 shows process. Fig. 
1 1 shows barn pasted and doors and w^indows 
cut out. 

This would be a good model for the children 
to work out from your finished one with the 
marked paper as a guide. 

This same foundation will be used in the sixth 
year for a set of furniture. 

Paper-Cutting 

No "made" toys have ever given us so much 
pleasure as we got with blunt-pointed scissors 
and colored crayons. They were our resource 
on several long journeys. We tucked them into 
the handbag with a tube of paste, an old maga- 
zine and a newspaper to be spread on the floor 
of the car to catch the clippings (not to make 
the porter too much trouble). Then with cutting 
out pictures, coloring them, folding tents, cutting 
soldiers in rows, chicken-coops, chickens, and 
what not, the time passed wonderfully. 

The advertising matter in magazines is full of 
pretty things, many of them done by clever, 
artists, that can be colored, cut out, and pasted 
into scrap-books. Helen and Sara took some 
useless official books that had wide margins and 
good bindings, and filled them with pictures for 
the children's ward in a hospital. 

Old department-store catalogs furnish rugs, 
furniture, and kitchen utensils as well as paper 
ladies for the paper doll-house. 

Free-Hand Cutting 

Too much cutting out of pictures sometimes 
keeps children from becoming independent in 
cutting free-hand. They are afraid to launch 
out. But at first it is good training simply to 
follow a line. 

Four-year old Nancy had a struggle to cut 



220 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



paper dolls without amputating a limb. * Yester- 
day she showed me a family with pardonable 
pride. There was not a cripple among them. 
That's the result of frequent cutting-bees under 
the superintendence of Helen. Now we want to 
see Nancy developing some power to make pic- 
tares of her own with the scissors. 

It takes a good deal of random snipping to 
find out that a turn of the wrist will turn the 



I give her a long strip of paper and let her paste 
it under the house, it will look, when mounted on 
a sheet of dark paper, like a bird-house on a pole. 
Scraps like wings can be made into flying birds, 
and so the picture grows. The same house, with 
a snip cut out for a door, looks like a dog-kennel. 
A little triangle is like a chicken-coop. If Nancy 
can not cut the biddies, I can. Wlien they 
are pasted on the paper, I can give her short 




I 



-J 



Jiu'.u^au^AujxJj ^Limimtt/tMUli ^ 





8 



^ r ; - 





11 



line at will. To-day we will spread a paper on 
the floor and when Nancy comes to call, will let 
her snip and sec what pictures she can find in 
the scraps. Here will be a shoe and here a tent, 
and now something that looks like a house. If 



* Before construction can be undertaken, control of the 
scissors shouhl be gained. The first cutting will be making 
little snips, which can be used to fill a pillow for the dolls; 
paper may be fringed for rugs and table runners for the 
playhouse; table siircads, rugs, and bedding may be cut, and 
napkins cut and folded for the playhouse. By this time the 
child should have sufficient >:ontrol of the scissors to cut 
successfully from the magazines pictures with straight edges. 



Strips to lay on the paper for fence-posts and 
long ones to lay across for the boards, and so 
we have a picture of a yard with bird-house, 
dog-kennel, and chicken-coop. 

All this is drawing. We are representing 
things as they look in outline. As we look at 
what we have done (whether by purpose or acci- 
dent) we feel its inaccuracies and want to ob- 
serve the real thing more closely the next time 
we see it. This is the way all drawing, modeling, 
and cutting helps observation ; and is the reason 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



221 



why high school students of botany are required 
to draw the plant-forms they are studying. 

Little children in the nursery are studying in 
the same way, with this difference : they are in- 
terested in the story aspect of their work, and 
not much in its accuracy. Nevertheless, their 
drawing is not mere amusement. It is training 
the eye to see and the hand to carry out. 

Additional Suggestions 

Let a square be folded in half. Fold one of 
the resulting triangles in half, putting sharp 
corners together. Draw for child lines from 





TRIANGLE 



FOLDED AND 

MARKED 




CHICKEN COOP 

folded edge toward longest edge. Cut out strips 
on these lines. Open. Result : Chicken-coop, 
slatted. 

Chicken: Cut a large and 
a small circle. Paste one 
half-way over the other. 
Draw bill and legs. 

Cottages: Cut a square 
into four small squares, an- 
other into triangles. Let the 
triangles be pasted on the 
squares, making four cot- 
tages in a row. 





House: Fold a square 
in quarters, fold two ad- 
jacent corners to the cen- 
ter, making outline of 
house with roof. Fold 
this through center, divid- 
ing peak of roof in half. 
Cut out oblong for door. 
Unfold. Cut little oblong 
to make chimney. Paste 
on roof. 

Apple: Give child a circle or let him cut one. 
Curve in one side a little. Make stem and paste 
in depression. 




HOUSE OPENED 





APPLE 



E.SKIMO HOUSE 



Eskimo house: Give or cut circle. Fold and 
cut in half. Cut tiny opening in middle of 
straight edge, for doorway. 




FOLDED SQU.\RE 



SAME FOLDED AND DOOR 
MARKED FOR CUTTING 



CRESCENT MOON 

Crescent Moon: Use other half to shape by 
one curving cut. 

Christmas Gifts 

Calendars can be made by cutting out small 
pictures appropriate to Christmas and pasting 
them on a card with a small calendar below. The 
school supply-houses carry a line of these small 
pictures. 

The beauty of these depend on the neatness 
of the pasting, the color of card and ribbon or 
cord used to hang it, and the spacing of picture 
and calendar, width of margins, etc. These are 
matters for the mother to call to the children's 
attention before pasting. Let them experiment 
with the arrangement, and then put pencil-marks 
on the card to mark corners of picture. 



222 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Pin-trays: Very small picnic plates can be 
bought for a few cents a dozen, for children to 
decorate with a band of color done in water- 
color about the rim. Pictures can be used for 
the center. 

Blotters: Get a sheet of blotting-paper and 
narrow ribbon to harmonize. Lay on it a stiff 
blotter of size desired and let child mark round 
it and cut out with scissors. Tie several of these 
together with ribbon run through slits or holes 
punched through the several blotters. A picture 
may be pasted on the top one. 

A Ball for the Baby: Cut circle two inches in 
diameter from a piece of card. Punch out a hole 
one-fourth inch in diameter at center. Thread 
darning needle with long, double strand of wool. 
Sew through hole, bring over edge of card and in 
hole again. Repeat until hole is full and circle 
thickly padded. Cut along edge of circle. Push 
wool back and, separating the two round pieces of 



cardboard, introduce a string between them and 
tie it firmly around wool at center of circle. 
Tear card away and trim ends of wool off to a 
well-shaped ball. Of course many strands will 
have to be threaded into needle. 

Needle-book : Let child draw around some 
circular object on a pretty colored piece of tough 
cover-paper. Cut out. Use same measure for 
wool cloth, mark with chalk. Cut out. Sew 
these leaves to the paper circle at one side or 
punch holes and fasten them with ribbon. 

Penwiper: Make as above, using old cotton- 
cloth or pieces from kid gloves for leaves. 

There are many more things that a child of 
this age might make, but your own invention will 
suggest the ones best suited to his needs and 
taste. Whatever is done should be so simple that 
the work on it will really be in the main the 
child's own. Then it will be honestly done and 
given. 



XIX. MODELING IN THE FIFTH YEAR 



This occupation continues to be of absorbing in- 
terest, as it was in the previous year, and it is 
such an unrivaled training for the sense of form 
that it is well to keep the clay jar always in 
readiness, or to have on hand one of the modern 
substitutes — plasticine or plasteline. 

After the very primitive kind of modeling 
described for the fourth year, the children will 
begin to discover that they can produce like- 
nesses to familiar objects and can improve upon 
them by repetition. This tendency to repeat 
themselves with variations is as fruitful a process 
here as are building, and speech, and all other 
forms of mastering particular problems. 

A little help is advisable now in showing how 
to manipulate this plastic material to get results, 
just as you would show the manipulation of the 
.scissors for getting results in cutting, or the chalk 
in blackboard drawing. 

What to Model 

The answer to this is easy: anything at all that 
a child tries to make is legitimate copy. Some 
things are easier than others, as we saw in the 
motor-play with the clay described earlier. Some 
things are more beautiful in form than others, 
but it is doubtful if at this age the aesthetic 
qualities of form make a very strong appeal. 

Let us get our first cue from movement, as we 
did earlier. Taking a small lump of clay (large 
enough to fill comfortably the hollow in the 
palm), roll it round and round as if between 
millstones until it begins to look spherical. Of 



course, if it is a good ball somebody else will 
want to make one, too. It suggests an apple, an 
orange, a man's head. Very well, let's make a 
man, perhaps like a snowman, built-up head on 
trunk, and extended arms, perhaps a rather 
flattened gentleman lying supine with legs as 
well as arms too weak to hold him up. Very 
likely he will have no body at all, but legs and 
arms sprouting from the place where his neck 
should be. A question in this case as to where 
his own arms spring from, an observation of 
Mother's own substantial body, or feeling his 
playmate's rounded trunk, might be sufficient 
direction to cause him to correct his model. If 
not, it does not matter; there is ample time com- 
ing for these perceptions to grow in definiteness. 
If we could only realize this truth, that growth 
itself will bring much that we push and strive 
for, our relations with children would be far 
happier, and their development be quite as sure 
and normal. 

The normal reaction from attempting to draw, 
model, cut, or make in any material, is to look 
sharply at the thing we are trying to reproduce 
the next time we see it. This is just as true of 
children, though they may not be conscious, as 
we are, of the effort to study. 

To return to our ball, we find that it needs 
just a stem to make it an apple; but if an apple 
is felt all over, the dimple for the stem is ap- 
parent, and another dimple where the blossom 
fell off. Now that the whole range of spherical 
objects is opened up, all fruits can be represented. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



J23 



With a little extra pinching and rolling of each 
end we have a lemon, a plum, or a melon ; by 
flattening opposite sides we find a resemblance 
to a tomato ; the same grooved from one depres- 
sion to the other presents us with a pumpkin or 
canteloupe. 

Each new resemblance achieved is hailed with 
joy. There is no need of any suggestion of 
organizing the results into any new whole, like 
a fruit-store. That can come later. Simply to 
be making, this is enough. 

Animal Forms 

At the Hull House kindergarten we once had 
as a visitor a baby alligator, that was sent from 
Florida when the kindergarten opened in the 
fall. He was brought in when clay had been 
distributed for modeling, and was put on the 
table with the suggestion that the children make 
his picture in clay. 

The children were full of interest in the 
sprawling movements and curious legs and jaws 
of "de alligate," as the Italian children called 
him. But they fumbled vaguely with the masses 
of clay, quite unable to give form to it, though 
they amiably tried. The results were shapeless 
and we dropped the idea. The alligator was 
carried off to parts unknown : probably he was 
an honored guest in the public school near by. 
Six weeks passed, during which the children 
played with the clay almost daily. The fruit- 
stands on Halsted Street were gay with autumn 
fruits, so they modeled these, and made a variety 
of inventive discoveries, handling the clay freely 
as they chose. 

One morning I discovered the alligator in a 
back room and brought him in and placed the 
pan containing him on the table. Shortly after 
I heard an excited call from brown-eyed An- 
nunziata : "Teach', teach' ! Come and see de 
alligate." I came, supposing he was in some 
queer new pose, but no, a rough but telling clay 
sketch of the ungainly creature lay on the table 
before her. She was wild with delight at her 
success and so were the other children, with 
whom beautiful Annunziata was a queen. Spurred 
with the skill of their favorite, they all bent to 
the task and soon the table teemed with swamp 
life. 

It seemed strange to us that, in the long time 
that had elapsed since the children had seen the 
queer and unfamiliar creature, their ideas had 
grown so definite. We could only lay it to the 
training their daily modeling had given their 
eyes and fingers. 

In the above I have tried to show the order 
of a child's development as exhibited in the han- 



dling of clay : from purely motor play to dis- 
covery that likenesses accidentally achieved can 
be reproduced by repeating the movements that 
brought forth the form; that the eye follows the 
hand, taking note of what it is doing and has 
done. 

Little dishes continue in high favor. The best 
of them can be baked in a hot oven (the hotter 
the better) after being dried for several days. 
If put in wet they crack and fly in pieces. But 
on the whole it is quite as well not to make 
permanent these very imperfect models. Many 
have served their purposes in the joy of making 
and can be quietly disposed of after the little 
artist is tucked in bed. I usually let them stand 
on display until they are replaced by something 
more recent. But let me caution you not to do 
injustice by treating these things with either 
disrespect or unwise praise. 

Children long for recognition and praise and 
ought to have it, but let them not get it in such 
terms that each one thinks he is the eighth 
wonder. 

More Play in the Sand-Table 

The sand-table continues to be a source of un- 
failing joy. The play goes on much as described 
for the fourth year. Roads, railroads, hills and 
caves, wells and ponds, are made and improved 
upon day after day. A fence about it gives the 
clue to another range of plays; within its boun- 
daries may be at one time a house, a school- 
house, a pasture, a chicken-yard. Blocks trans- 
ferred to it complete the buildings. Little cotton 
Easter chickens may be the stimulus for the 
chicken-yard. The chickens need coops, which 
can be made of one square of paper folded 
into an oblong, set up like a tent, and toothpicks 
thrust across, piercing the slanting sides for the 
slats. 

A flag and some lead soldiers suggest a drill- 
ground, for which you might suggest folded tents 
of paper. 

Any child who has seen a windlass-well or a 
windmill-pump will be delighted to reproduce 
them. A square box with the sides intact and 
bottom removed makes a well-curb: a spool with 
a rod or a twig through it makes the windlass; a 
string and toy bucket finishes the essentials. For 
the windmill tower, blocks laid pigpen fashion 
will do. Pin to the top a pinwheel made like the 
one on page 219. 

A miniature playground will delight any child 
and can be made from the contents of his play- 
box, — a seesaw from a ruler balanced on a spool, 
a swing from a frame made of a short block 
balanced on two tall, upright ones, with a string 



224 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



tied to the short one in a long loop. Little penny 
dolls or paper dolls can swing and teeter. A 
swimming-pool is too easily made to need de- 
scription. Leave that to the mere suggestion. 
But if you will show the children how to fold a 
square of paper back and forth, fan-fashion, and 
then cut a string of paper children hand in hand 
to be dancing in a ring, you will have contributed 



a pleasant feature that can be repeated ad in- 
finitum. 

Children will devise their own scenes with 
very little help if they have the toy animals, dolls, 
blocks, spools, string, and other materials. Your 
part will be in suggesting and encouraging, with 
now and then the solution of a knotty problem 
too hard for the little head. 



XX. PICTURES AND PAINTING 



The reader is referred to what has been written 
in the previous section on drawing for the three- 
year-old. Since drawing is so nearly another 
kind of speech to little children, it should be 
made as full and free as possible. The way to 
do this is to keep drawing-materials of the kind 
easiest to handle constantly accessible to children. 
To me the blackboard and crayon are ideal, 
save for the dust of the crayon in the room. 
That, however, is an objection that does not ob- 
tain in the home where one or two, not forty, 
children are using it. The great advantage of 
the blackboard is that the drawings may be 
erased and repeated countless times without waste 
and with such ease of movement; and perhaps 
greater than .this, is the play it gives to the large 
arm muscles. Both the psychologist and the 
artist say that we cramp the child's powers by 
giving him small pencils to grasp, and hard pen- 
cils on which he must bear down to get a line. 
First-grade teachers say that after a child has 
once learned to grip his pencil at home it is next 
to impossible to get him to limber up and write 
with the loose fingers and easy arm-movement 
that is the great nerve-saving habit of modern 
writing. Then let us use the blackboard or large 
sheets of wrapping-paper and soft wax crayon 
or the big marking pencils used by carpenters. 

Play-Practice 

For getting control of movements needed in 
drawing: 

Use soft pencils. 

Practice a free arm-movement, pencil lightly 

held in the fingers, arm- resting on the 

table. 
Swing round and round in big continuous 

"0"s." Make this a picture of a ball of 

yarn. 
Swing the pencil back and forth from left 

to right and make the "ground." 
Beginning at the top of the paper, draw long 

strokes to the bottom of the paper. 



Draw in the same way shorter fence-posts 
and cross them with "wire" or "boards." 
Right and left strokes. 

Christinas Tree: Long, broad stroke from top 
to bottom for trunk. Downward sloping branches 
made with single strokes. 

Poplar Tree: Branches sloping upward. 

Elm, Maple, or Oak Tr.ce: Branches slightly 
upward sloping, but many times branching into 
smaller and smaller branches. 

The Object of This Drawing 

At this age we are uncritical of the resthetic 
side of drawing and painting; the aim is to say 
something with the drawing, not to make a 
beautiful thing. At first the objects are repre- 
sented in an isolated way — a man, a dog, a chair, 
a tree. Then these things are used to tell a 
story. 

The grotesquerie of these drawings should ex- 
cite neither comment nor laughter in the presence 
of the artist, unless the child sees it as funny 
himself, in which case it will not check his ef- 
forts to laugh with him. The main thing is to 
put nothing in the way of free expression, and 
to give encouragement. 

Suggestions can be given without concern as 
to whether they are adopted or not. Often ques- 
tions and suggestions will keep children from 
settling down and adopting their own conven- 
tions for tree, flower, man, or what not as final, 
and will start them on a new track. For in- 
stance, in a picture of "Aunt Elsie wheeling her 
baby," the dress of "Aunt Elsie" disclosed an 
extraordinary length of leg below the triangle 
which symbolized the skirt. I asked the little 
girl, "Does Aunt Elsie wear such short dresses?" 
Whereupon she hastily lengthened the garment 
by a scribbled addition. I have often called the 
attention of children to the fact that in real life 
legs are not visible through petticoats. I have 
suggested the addition of hands and feet, and 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



225 



SO on, just to keep the attention moving and 
ideas growing in detail. 

Painting 

It is best to take the paints out for very little 
children. Use little pans or butter-plates. Dip 
the brush in water and wash paint from pan. 



putting it from one color into another. Other- 
wise the colors will never be pure and brilliant. 
One day I sat down beside Robert to show him 
how to lay on the strokes for leaves. Uncon- 
sciously I dipped the brush loaded with green 
into the blue pan. Instantly the reproof came 
from the young man, "How can you tell us not 



•fe ^:< CD- C3 €^> c:- ^ 





BRUSH PRINTING 



Transfer to plate. Repeat with each color 
needed. This saves smearing one color over 
another in the box. Red, yellow, and blue are 
all the colors they need. They enjoy watching 
the mixture of these colors to produce others. 
Red and yellow blend to orange, blue and yellow 
to green, and red and blue to purple. 

Each child should have a bit of old cotton 
cloth with which to dab up spots of color that 
fall where not wanted. 

Teach them to rinse the brush in water before 



to do that when you do the very same thing 
yourself?" I meekly accepted the correction. 

Methods and Devices 

Painting is drawing in color. Children go 
through about the same period of experimenta- 
tion with the new medium that they do with any 
new material : first playing with the brush and 
color to see what they can do with it. They 
usually handle the brush like a scrub-brush, 
gripping it in the fist and scrubbing around. 



226 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 




^P' 

% 










BRUSH PRINTING 



What a gorgeous trail it leaves in its wake ! 
The brush is plunged in the paint again and the 
spot spreads till the paper is awash. "Mine is 
done !" says the embryo artist and looks about 
for more paper. 

This is the time for a little direction. Let him 
choose another color, and show him how to sweep 
the brush across the paper from left to right, un- 
til the long streaks blend, and a wash has tinted 



the paper smoothly. These washes, when dry, 
can be used for rugs in the doll-house or cut 
into paper-doll dresses. 

A blue paper may stand for the blue sky over- 
head, a green one for the grass plot. Paste the 
blue above the green and you discover a land- 
scape. To make it more real, reproduce the 
effect on one piece of paper, washing the brush 
when half-way down the page and laying on 



WASH I'AlNTINCi — SKY AND GRASS 







^-isi 




HLKNinXr, COl.OKS BUBBLES 



SPOTTING ANn WASHTNG 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



227 



green. Add life to it by cutting out a bird-house 
and pasting on, or a flight of birds across the 
sky, or dot yellow daisies in the field as it be- 
gins to dry. 

This is beginning where a child is and, as some 
one has said, "No matter where you're going. 



another color. Children call these soap-bubbles. 
Try them in all combinations of color. 

Little blobs look like beads. Thread them on 
a string by a sweep of the brush. Purple blobs 
dropped close together look like a bunch of 
grapes, red ones like cherries. They grow in 







-i^ 






\ 



r 



/ 



♦ #♦ ♦♦ 



STREAKING AND SPOTTING 



you must start from where you're at." The 
washes are just what the teachers in the art 
schools teach as preliminary practice. 

Call attention to the brown fields, if it is .Au- 
tumn, and paint them under the sky. At sunset, 
notice the reds, yellows, and orange, and paint 
them. This is a good way to teach the blending 
of colors. If the sky is yellow above, shading 
into orange below, and then into red, let one ftoiv 
into the other. 

Spotting 

While playing with the blending of colors 
show the children how to drop spots of one color 
into another and watch the shading of one into 
the other. Let them make a circle with a round 
and round motion of the brush and spot it with 



pairs on tiny green stems from a brown branch. 
Yellow drops look like black-eyed susans when 
brown centers are dropped in them. 

With these suggestions, your inventions and 
the children's will lead to much delightful play, 
full of discoveries as to color and likeness. So 
far the pictures have been happened on. Soon 
they will try puyposcfiiUy to make pictures. 

Brush-Prints: Play and Application 

.'V wise old teacher of drawing in London told 
me this story: A little girl pupil laid down her 
brush full of brown color unintentionally on her 
picture, and was distressed at the blot. To com- 
fort her, Mr. Cooke said, "Oh, no, that is a 
mouse ; see how your brush tip made his sharp 



228 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



little nose. Til add this streak, for his tail." 
Her distress changed to glee. 

Then he began to experiment with the print, 
setting his children to see what they coidd repre- 
sent with it. They used it for leaves, petals, and 
decorations, and found it a great aid to invention. 
They arranged prints for leaflets along curving 
streaks for stems, and arranged them around 
dotted centers. I recommend this plan to you. 

Fill the brush — a large one— and press it on 
the paper, being sure to let the tip leave the 
paper last. The surplus of color left by the tip 
makes a pleasing shading. 

After much experimental play with the brush, 
print; meanwhile the children will find how to 
lay the brush down cleanly, and how to lift it 
without scattering the paint. They will be ready 
to combine the prints into pictures of mice, rab- 
bits, beetles, leaves, and flowers. Now if you 
will show them how to paint two long parallel 
bands across the top of a sheet of paper, they 
can fill the space between the bands with pat- 
terns. Call their attention to the frieze on wall- 
paper, to the borders at the top of book-covers, 



and to similar applications of this border-like 
design. Paper the doll-houses with these designs. 
Another application of these designs that will 
be even more suited to their interests and ability 
is found in decorating paper picnic-plates that 
may be had at any ten-cent store. 

Painting in Outlines 

After playful practice in washing, streaking, 
spotting, and printing, children are ready to paint 
within boundaries requiring more muscular con- 
trol. 

Draw outlines of simple forms, a chicken, 
house, apple, leaf, and let them fill it in with 
the brush. 

Let them draw their own outlines by putting 
a tumbler on the paper upside down and drawing 
around it. Fill in with color for a balloon. Make 
a number of small balloons, and draw or paint 
lines from them, meeting below as if held at 
one point. 

Do the same and float colors over one another. 
When color "runs" outside the line, blot it up 
with a slightly damp rag. 



XXL TALKING WITH AND HELPING MOTHER 



LiTTLfi children like to feel that they are sharing 
the occupations of grown folks. Often it would 
be easier to dispense with the help, but the chil- 
dren would be the losers. Every kind of work 
has its charm, but cooking, with its delightful 
odors, surreptitious tastes of sweets, and chance 
for making messes, is chief in attraction. 

There were occasions when Helen was only 
three years old and Mother had to play nurse 
and cook at the same time. Perched on a high 
stool she beat the eggs, sifted flour, and creamed 
the butter for cake. When the mixing was done 
she had a bit of the dough for her own. These 
impromptu cooking-lessons acquainted her with 
many qualities and processes. Think, for in- 
stance, of the transformation of an egg: the 
breaking of the frail, brittle shell, the pouring 
out of the translucent white, the globular yellow, 
the gradual blending of the two in a foamy mass. 
Could there be a better lesson in colors, forms, 
and textures? 

The flour has its qualities to be tested with all 
the senses : squeezed in pudgy palms, dusted over 
the board, sifted through the wire mesh. How 
good its wheaty odor is, how sweet it tastes to 
the tongue, and how it flics about ! This all 
changes when it is wet. Now it is sticky, cling- 
ing to fingers and pan, but with more flour it 



becomes soft ; elastic when squeezed and pinched. 
How many of us, I wonder, ever think of the 
sense-training in such experiences as these? 

Quite as desirable is the training in deftness 
gained in handling the dishes, sifter, and egg- 
beater, and the dish-mop and pan during the 
washing up that follows. The soap and water 
make shimmering bubbles, just as lovely as 
though not made in the course of necessary 
work. There is more to be noticed and felt and 
done, neatly and deftly. The mixing-bowl is 
heavy, demanding all the strength in arms and 
wrists to lift and turn it. The wooden rolling- 
pin is not so smooth nor as heavy. The egg- 
beater makes one wonder what makes it turn so 
regularly, and the cog-wheels seem somehow 
concerned in the motion. It is all worth while. 

Helen seemed to think that if she took a pinch 
of this and a spoonful of that, something good 
would come from the mixture. She would not 
take my word for it that cocoa, salt, flour, and 
sand would not make a delectable mess. So I 
let her try a few of her own mixtures until she 
was ready to take my advice. 

Then I let her measure the ingredients for 
sweet muffins, in doing which she learned to 
measure in cupful, half cupful, tablespoonful, 
teaspoonful, as well as the difi^erence between 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



229 



level and heaping. It was not cooking in the 
real sense, just play, but she was learning, too. 

Regular Duties 

Mothers find it hard to train children in house- 
hold tasks where they keep servants who do not 
want children fussing around. One of the com- 
pensations for the difficulty in obtaining domestic 
help is in the occasion it furnishes for children 
to have regular duties. It was one of the sources 
of education in the old-fashioned home that "all 
were needed by each one." 

What can children under five years do? They 
can wash silver and the smaller dishes, dry and 
put them away on low shelves. They can dust 
and polish furniture. Setting the table is another 
task within their capacity. When our cook left 
I put the dishes used most often on a low shelf 
so that Helen could reach them easily. 

Then there are errands. How many errands 
they can do in the house and out of it ! 

No work should be too long continued and it 
is good to change work occasionally. In all this 
the charm will wear off when the novelty is gone 



and the lesson then is one of "standing to" and 
learning the moral lesson of responsibility. 

Habits of Order 

It is usually easier to pick up toys and clothes 
than to see that children do it for themselves. 
But it is one of the things in which we should be 
firm with ourselves and hard-hearted with the 
children. It is one of the disagreeable necessities 
of civilized life, and the sooner we make it habit- 
ual in children, the easier it will be for them and 
us. Just once disregarding the rule, and the 
mischief is to pay. For the secret hope is born 
in a child's soul that the omission may occur 
again. Then he will have to be followed up — 
to his sorrow and ours. 

Miss Elizabeth Harrison tells a story of a boy 
who for a time came to the table repeatedly with 
unwashed hands, and was as often sent away 
to wash them. At length his mother said, "Why 
do you persist in coming without washing — 
you know I never let you stay?" "Oh, yes, you 
did once!" the young hopeful replied. "When?" 
asked she. It turned out to have been a week 
before. The moral is plain. 



XXir. OUTDOOR LIFE, PETS, AND GARDENING 



The little child who has been the center of care 
and attention all his life is innocently selfish. 
It is hard to keep him from sensing the fact that 
he is a person of importance in the household, 
and that his wants are matters of first concern. 

What can be done to curb this natural childish 
egotism and plant the seeds of consideration? 
Consideration is a plant of slow growth. Ex- 
ample and precept are helpful in promoting its 
growth, but voluntary deeds of service are neces- 
sary to put a child in the attitude of one who 
cares for others. 

A child must have something definite to do 
that makes an appeal to him, an appeal for some 
service within his powers. Some homes offer 
better conditions for these acts of helpfulness 
than others. These are the simple homes in which 
mothers do their own household work. 

We know that children get a kind of social 
training at play together that they do not get in 
a home where older people regulate all their 
dealings from a grown-up standard. With each 
other they must make their own rules of con- 
duct and administer them. The four-year-old is 
still the baby in most groups of playing children, 
and matters are adjusted to his whims with a 
certain degree of leniency, much as in the home. 



So there is still something wanting of discipline 
in serving and giving up voluntarily to others. 

The Value of Pets 

In the presence of the plant and animal world 
the child feels himself superior. Here is the 
opportunity for cultivating in him a feeling of 
tenderness and responsibility. As Froebel said 
to the mothers of his time : 

"If to a child's sole care is left 
Something which of that care bereft 

Would quickly pine and fade. 
The joy of nurture he will learn ; 
A rich experience which will turn 
His inner life to aid." 

The pet dog, cat, rabbit, bird, are all depend- 
ent on some human being for food, drink, and 
protection from their natural enemies. When 
the pets belong to a child, he should be made to 
feel their dependence on him. He appreciates 
their appeal for food. His sympathy for their 
feelings is a strong motive in remembering their 
mealtimes, their signs of enjoyment his reward. 
Often he must break away from desirable play 
to feed them. All this is a needed offset to the 
egotism nourished by fond elders. 



230 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



It is not easy for these elders to put up with 
the inconveniences of pets. Fido drags bones 
to the front porch, where they confront the 
caller. He is fond of playing with your rubbers 
and not careful to return them to the hall. He 
slips in and settles on the living-room couch. 
Pussy gets underfoot and is under suspicion of 
being a thief. But it is worth while to make the 
best of it all, in the light of their unconscious 
contribution to the kiddies' training in responsi- 
bility. 

Plant Life 

Plants make a similar if somewhat weaker 
appeal for care. Potted plants, if the children's 
own, will repay for the attention given them by 
marked growth. 

In November the city child can visit the local 
florist's shop and buy hyacinth and Chinese lily- 
bulbs. From the time the latter are first bedded 
in a glass bowl among stones and given a foot- 
bath, they need little save to have the water kept 
half way up the bulb, and they grow so rapidly, 
that they are new from day to day. Hyacinths 
grow best in earth. Cover them about an inch 
deep. 

Even in a city flat a child can have a window- 
box. All the preparations are full of interest: 
going to the grocery to get an empty raisin box, 
or to the carpenter shop to order it made ; search- 
ing in the backyard or in the woods for suitable 
soil : deciding what seeds to plant ; carrying the 
soil home; rubbing it fine; filling the box to the 
right depth ; making the furrows, and finally, 
sprinkling in the seed and patting the earth firmly 
above them. 

Lettuce, parsley, and chives will be good in 
salad and for flavoring soup and also as relish 



for the canary. At least enough can be grown 
in the window to garnish the meat-platter. Beans 
pay best in the exhibition they give of the way 
a seed behaves when it begins to make a plant. 
Notice the coming up of the bean itself in the 
shape of two fat leaves ; the gradual thinning 
and withering of these. Someone calls them the 
baby plant's nursing bottles, which it sucks dry. 
Soak some in a saucer and look at the plantlet 
packed between these nourishing leaves. 

With spring, real outdoor gardening begins. 
Strong hands are needed to spade the plot, but 
little rakes can do the smoothing and breaking 
of the clods. Teach children to break these to 
powder; to rake the surface smooth; to mark 
the furrows straight; to make them a certain 
depth; to drop the seeds a certain measured dis- 
tance apart, one inch or two or whatever is re- 
quired; to pat the earth to firmness when seeds 
are in. 

The italics are to suggest to you the qualities 
and their names that children are learning while 
working under your direction. How infinitely 
more full of meaning they will be than when 
toilsomely dwelt upon by a teacher, as I have 
seen them in the primary school "observation" 
lessons in Germany, where "flat" and "round," 
"rough," "smooth," and the like, were taught ut- 
terly apart from any joyous activity. 

Children's patience is short-lived. Let them 
plant something that matures early, such as let- 
tuce, radishes, nasturtiums, and annual phlox. 

Let the weeding and watering be done reg- 
ularly, making the plants a means of developing 
habits of persistence, as well as of sympathetic 
acquaintance with plant-ways. 

(See also "The Garden" in the Boys and Gikls 
Bookshelf, vol. IV, page 1.35.) 



ALICE 



With little red frock in the firelight, in the lingering April 

evening — 
(The moonlight over the treetops just beginning to shine in 

at the cottage door) — 
Her big brown eyes and comical big mouth for very gladness 

unresting, like a small brown fairy — 
She stands, the five-year-old child. 

Then, so gentle, with tiny tripping speech, and with a little 

wave of the hand — 
"Good-night," she says to the fire and to the moon. 
And kissing the elder wearier faces. 
Runs off to bed and to sleep in the lap of heaven. 

— Edward Carpenter. 




'A 



Q 



Q 
f- 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



231 






pt, u 



•S SIXTH YEAR 



■w ID 
X Xi 

.^ 4-* 

en u 

m 



XXIII. DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE SIXTH YEAR 



All divisions in the life of a child are only ap- 
proximate. A group of children may develop 
very differently. Some will have a sense of form 
developed very early, showing in the drawings 
he makes. Another is forward in speech, and 
possibly backward in some other way. Some 
children have a very early development of the 
feeling for musical intonations. I know one 
child who startled a visitor (who knew the baby 
could not walk) by singing to herself in perfect 
tune and perfect enunciation. Yet, in spite of 
all these irregularities, there are certain lines of 
growth that mark the changes from one period 
to another which can be limited in a general 
way by years. 

Children in the si.xth year can do more, ob- 
serve more, tell more of what they have experi- 
enced, than in the fifth year. Walks, rides, pic- 
tures, stories, and the overheard conversations 
of his elders have given him a larger stock of 
ideas on which to draw for his dramatic play. 
A year of "making things," of constructive play, 
has given definiteness to his power of thinking 
things out and putting them together. It has 
given control of his brain over his hand as well. 
He sees more into the detail of the things he 
tries to draw or make. 

The four-year-old draws imaginary coal in 
his toy cart and dumps it into imaginary cellars. 
He ties a string to a shoe-box and is delighted 
to have made so fine a wagon of his own. Some- 
one shows him how to fasten spools or button- 
molds to his cart, and his power of making now 
includes that improvement. Hereafter wheels 
are within his scope. The five-year-old, given a 
hammer, nails, and round wooden disks or spools, 
finds he can improve upon the wagon. He has 
seen coal-yards and coal-trains, too, and possibly 
his play will extend itself into realistic building 
with blocks of yard or depot ; and his wagon 
carries real coal. 

To go farther, the five-year-old has seen pic- 
tures and been told stories of mining. He has 
another set of conditions to add to the plays of 
earlier years. With his playmates he builds a 
shaft of packing boxes and dramatizes the life 
about the pit and in the mine. 

Most five-year-old children can keep rather an 



extended play going. In other words, they have 
the ideas and persistence to center their play, 
day after day, around a central purpose: such 
as making a doll-house or representing a farm 
scene in the sand-table, adding barns, corn-crib, 
chicken-coops, fields, and other features as they 
occur to them or are suggested by others. 

In working out any such themes they will use 
the skill acquired earlier in building, modeling, 
cutting, painting, and the like. They will do more 
of the same kind of work that they have been do- 
ing, but carry it into more detail and relate it 
more as a part of a general purpose. That is, 
they will do it if you give them the opportunity. 

These things make for opportunity : materials 
to work with, as in the previous year, and sug- 
gestion, in case their own initiative does not 
prompt them. 

Someone asks, "Why all this emphasis on play, 
and especially on constructive play ?" 

The answer is that the supreme business of 
children at this time is play, and that the best 
quality of thinking goes into constructive play. 

Through play they are getting the bodily ex- 
ercise that they must have. 

Through play they are testing their own powers 
of strength, of control, of thinking. They are 
not only finding them, they are enlarging them 
at the same time. 

Through dramatic play they are entering into 
the social life about them, and are themselves 
the characters they see, hear, and that they are 
told of in stories. It is making them observant 
of the way things are done. In dramatic play 
the imagination is obliged to construct a defi- 
nite scene or character or plot. Imagination 
becomes disciplined, does not spend itself fruit- 
lessly. It is the servant of thought. 

Through constructive play they are learning 
to harness imagination in a different way. They 
measure, combine, think out ways of reaching 
results that they want. Imagination is again a 
tool to shape things as they are wanted. It is 
harnessed with tJiinking as a yoke-fellow. Con- 
structive play can be made a means of logical 
thinking. 

Since it is so important, let us give our atten- 
tion now to constructive play and work. 



232 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



XXIV. MAKING DOLL-FURNITURE 



Suppose a child wants to make a paper doll- 
bed. You can let the child alone to work at it 
in her own way or you can help her in any one 
of several ways. Left alone, the problem may 
baffle her; in all probability it will if she has no 
clue to its solution; that is, if she sees no plan, 
imagines no details, of putting together. 

You want to help her to see the parts of a bed 
in their relation, to see how they go together. 
Then they must be shaped, at least, there has 
to be some practicable, workable way of making 
them stay together. It would be easy to do all 
her thinking for her, but that would not help the 
next time. In the educational sense it would not 
be practical. 

You can help her to see that a bed is made of 
three main parts — a head, a foot, and a horizontal 
part to lie on. The head and foot serve, when 
extended, as legs. You might give her a flexible 
piece of cardboard or heavy paper, and let her 
cut out these three pieces in her own way, and 
hold them together the way they belong. 

The next step is to find a way of fastening 
them together. If she does not think of a way 
you might show how you would do it: by folding 
up a narrow strip from the end of the main part. 
to give a surface to which the head can be glued, 
and the same for the foot. A coarse needle and 
thread could be used to sew them together if the 
paper is soft and tough. 

If the result is satisfactory she will probably 
want to make many more, as this seems to be 
Nature's way of getting children to practice any 
new accomplishment. Then there will be other 
things wanted to which the same method of think- 
ing out and putting together can be applied. 

Variations of Method 

Then it would be well to try other ways of 
getting the paper furniture made. Having seen 
the parts in relation to each other and put them 
together, it might be a step in advance to propose 
getting them all out of one piece of cardboard. 
Instead of cutting four strips for table legs and 
pasting them at the four corners of a square, the 
plan can be drawn on paper, cut out, and the legs 
folded at right angles to the top. 

Much of this kind of furniture is provided in 
the "cut-outs" in popular magazines. A ready- 
made thing is really given children in these, which 
is well enough in its way and would be all that 
might be desired, if it would only lead them to 



self-designed things. My observation leads me to 
believe that it does not. 

After this experimental work has been enjoyed 
it will be a satisfaction to most children to make 







, 1 
















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- — 


— 1 


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1 



the toy furniture upon some plan which can be 
changed and adapted to many things. The most 
satisfactory one I have ever seen is given below. 
The objects made are well-shaped and propor- 
tioned, and have a kind of finish that children 

appreciate after their 
own less stable fur- 
niture has been 
worked out. 

The foundation is 
made as in Fig. g in 
Easy Folding Series, 
No. II, on page 220. 
Opened out, it shows 
sixteen squares, out- 
lined by creases, 
Figs. 10 and 1 1 show 
the process of getting a barn from this foundation 
by a series of clips, folds, and pastings. 

To make a bed, table, or square box, the 
creases on the inner sides of two corner squares 
are cut. These two squares must be on the same 
edge of the paper. Then cut in the same way the 
creases on the inner sides of two corresponding 
squares at the opposite edge of the paper. (See 
Fig. I.) 

To make a table, fold the row of four uncut 
squares at right angles to the rest of the paper. 
Repeat this on opposite side. Let small oblongs 
between the squares at end stand level to make 
end Icaz'cs of tabic. Fold squares next them 




FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



233 



toward each other. Now it is done, save for 
bracing. Cut from a paper folded like the 
foundation (in sixteen squares) a square 2x2. 




Paste it over the two squares at the end of table 
and on under side of leaf. This binds "flapping" 
squares together and stiffens leaf. Repeat at 
other end. (See Fig. 3.) 

Bed 

Fold and cut exactly like table, but turn small 
oblongs at ends up to form head and foot of bed. 
Cut 2x2 square as before and paste on the out- 
side of head and foot of bed, to strengthen and 
make smooth. (See Fig. 2.) 

The basket (Fig. 5) and the wagon (Fig. 6) 
are modifications of the table, turned upside-down. 

Bureau 
Fold two squares of paper as before into sixteen 

squares. Lay one aside and proceed with the 

other as for bed and table, but fold small oblong 

flap down over the two flapping squares and 
J ■•■ ^ paste. This makes a 
square box. Stand 
it on one side, to 
contain the drawers. 
Cut the other folded 
square in half, mak- 
ing two oblongs. 
"* Paste one of them 

at the back of the box, to stiffen it and serve as 

a mirror. 

Take two more squares of paper and fold into 

sixteen squares, but first cut a very narrow strip 

from two adjacent 

sides of each, to 

make these squares 

slightly smaller than 

the ones used before. 

After the sixteen 

squares have been 

folded, open the pa- 
per, all but one row 

of four squares, leave 5 

these folded over. Now fold them with those that 

lie on at right angles to the rest of the paper, also 

the row of four at the opposite edge. This makes 





the paper trough shape. One row of four squares 
forms the bottom of the trough. Cut the creases 
that run at the sides of each end square of this 
row of four. Fold them up at right angles to the 
bottom. Slip them inside the pair that are doubled 
on the front edge. Now you should have an ob- 
long box with one edge doubled and firm. Push 
it inside the bureau for the bottom drawer. Re- 
peat to make top drawer. 




Now the bureau is ready for any trimmings 
your little girl wants to put on it, in the shape 
of bureau scarf or tinfoil mirror. Small black 
laundry-studs make good handles for drawers. 

IVashstand 

This can be made like bureau with lower back. 
Other furniture can be worked out with the 
same foundation. You can use your ingenuity 
to make sofa, armchair, and dining-room chairs. 
They are very pretty made in brown, tan, or green 
smooth cover-paper. 

Furniture calls for a room, or better yet, a 
house. Rooms of shoe or hat boxes are satisfac- 
tory. Windows can be cut in the sides and cur- 
tained with tissue-paper or muslin. The walls 
can be papered with scraps of wall-paper. 

Houses of wooden boxes are more durable. 
Did you ever make one of an orange crate when 
you were a little girl? 

A Doll-House 

Janet wanted a house, and Mrs. Reed, remem- 
bering what fun she had had with them, sug- 
gested that they get a fruit-crate from the 
grocery. The walls were rough and had to be 
covered with paper to make them pleasing in 
the doll's eyes. Finding no scraps in the attic, 
they tried to buy some last year's samples at the 
decorator's, but could not get any. So Mrs. Reed 
took some smooth sheets of light-colored wrap- 
ping-paper and told Janet if she would cut the 
pieces to fit the walls she would help her deco- 
rate them. Janet measured the height of the 
wall and made a pencil mark to show where it 
came on her paper, and then folded it off to that 
width. Then she poked this piece into the house 



234 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



to see how much she would need to cut off for 
the side wall of one room. 

Mrs. Reed came in then and suggested that 
it would be easier to measure this on the outside 
of the wall. 

When the pieces were all cut they decided to 
make the bedroom a pale green and the down- 
stairs living-room a soft orange-color. Mrs. 
Reed advised Janet to mix as much paint as she 
would need for all the paper for one room at 
one time, so it would be exactly the same shade. 



would provide them. She cut long strips for the 
table, measured them to the same length, and 
glued them inside the rim with liquid glue. The 
bed legs were cut half as long and glued to the 
outside of the box, which was turned upside 
down to hold the mattress. 

This did not look right, and then she had g, 
happy thought. She took the cover of a box^ 
cut it across into a short and a long piece, fitted 
one end of the bed into the long one for the 
head and the other into the short one for the 




THE TL'LIP BORDKU 



It took a good deal of mixing and trying to get 
it just right. 

They fastened the sheets of paper to a draw- 
ing-board with thumbtacks, so that it would not 
bother them by curling up when wet. First 
Janet wet the paper all over with clear water 
in a big brush. Then she took up all the extra 
moisture with a soft cloth and put on a wash of 
green, sweeping the brush from left to right in 
long strokes. The wash of clear water made 
the color go on without streaking. 

When the papers were all tinted they thought 
one at least might be decorated with a border of 
some kind. Mrs. Reed showed how to draw with 
a ruler a line i^ inches from the top, and this 
was tinted with two more washes of green to 
make it a little darker. The living-room was 
measured off in the same way. Mrs. Reed drew 
a tiny tulip on a card and cut it out. Then Janet 
put it about the ruled line and drew around it 
and then again, until a row of tulips blossomed 
on the border. These were painted red with 
green leaves. 

Janet had learned how to make paste after 
many experiments. She knew that four tea- 
spoonfuls of flour mixed with eight tablespoons- 
ful of cold water and cooked until clear would 
be thick enough. She put it on with a large 
painter's brush, an inch broad, and soon the 
house was ready for furniture. 

Furniture for the Doll-House 

Some empty spool-boxes seemed the best things 
at hand to make over into furniture. One served 
as a bed and its cover as a table, but both lacked 
legs. Janet saw a broken box and knew this 



foot. Now it looked very real and inviting to 
even a doll of fastidious tastes. 

The next morning mother and daughter went to 
the nearest dry-goods store to get more spool- 
boxes, and happened on a rich find. The clerks 
were busy taking inventory of stock, a general 
house-cleaning had littered the floor with boxes of 
all sizes. Janet joyfully gathered an armful and 
carried them home. 

The next morning she got her mother to help 
her make a bureau to match the spool-box bed. 
They took one end out of a box and stripped the 
sides loose from it half-way down. These sides 
were bent toward each other and glued where 
they lapped. This made the back, sides, and mir- 
ror of the bureau. The drawers were made by 
cutting straight across the end of a box and past- 
ing a folded paper over the back to close the 
open side. 

A wardrobe was the easiest thing to make. 
Janet stood a bo.x on end and fastened the top 
of a cover to it with paper strap-hinges. 

They had the most fun with the drum and 
wheel-shaped pasteboard things on which tape and 
ribbon had been wound. From these they made 
a cake-box, pail, oil-heater, and coal-stove. The 
kitchen range was made from a candy-bo.x with 
doors cut from the side for oven and fire-pot, 
and circles marked on top for pot-holes. A piece 
of paper, rolled up, was stuck into a small hole for 
the stovepipe. 

How We Invented Cornstalk Furniture 

One Saturday afternoon in late October Helen 
and I invited Sara, Jack, and John to go with 
us to a place we had found the week before. 




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t 






y, 

-' f- 

■ fx 

■7 ui 









FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



235 



where a deep ravine with tributary gullies had 
washed so deep in the red earth that it seemed 
a miniature cafaon. We played Indian and emi- 
grant, with exciting adventures, and planned to 
come again the next holiday with more of the 
older children, to make a real drama and act it 
here. Then, tired of climbing up and down and 
digging caves, we wandered back into the woods 
to see "what we could find to bring home. We 
filled our pockets with fine big acorns, to use 
for dishes in the doll-house. The little ones 
loaded themselves with soft green moss and gray 
lichens to carpet their playhouse under the oak 
tree at home. Crossing the pasture, we pulled 
rushes to weave into baskets, and willow-wands 
for the same purpose. 

Then our short cut led through a cornfield. 
Remembering the cornstalk fiddles my brothers 
made for me, I proposed to cut some and take 
them to experiment with. 

These are some of the things we made at home: 

Fiddles. 
Tumbling men. 
Log houses. 
Furniture. 
Flutter mill. 

Here is how we made the tumbling men : We 
melted down some tinfoil in an old iron spoon 
over the gas flame and ran it into little pellets. 
I cut the stalk into short lengths and the children 
hollowed the pith out of one end and put in pellets 
of lead, cut circles of white cloth and tied them 
over this end to keep the lead in, first padding 
the end with a wad of cotton, to make the man's 
head. Then they marked features on this with 
soft pencils and ink. Set up on the Hght end, the 
men turned over instantly. 

Jack cut the stalks at each joint and built them 
into cob-houses by laying them on the flat sides. 
I told him the real log-houses had notches hacked 
in the upper sides of the logs where the top log 
fitted in to hold them close together. This notch- 
ing made them more firm. 

Helen got an idea from this of making furni- 
ture. She took some of the short pieces and a 
card and placed one at each corner for legs. This 
was the starting-point for a whole set of parlor 



furniture, much needed in the doll-house. I found 
some smooth green heavy paper and some pins, 
and all were happy for an hour cutting the paper 
into different dimensions, some long for shelves, 
some broad for table-tops and sofas, and pinning 
the legs to them. They looked like rattan, and 
made a pretty effect in the parlor. 

To make the flutter mill, peel a thick section of 
stalk, so that the thick, glassy skin is in strips 




FLUTTER MILL 

one-fourth inch wide. Cut pith in four-inch 
lengths, and covering in two three-inch pieces. 

Stick a match in each end of pith. Cut two 
slits at center of it, side by side at right angles 
to each other. Push the thin strips through these 
after sharpening ends. 

Hold mill by ends under water tap. Notice 
curving face of strips. Let water fall on these. 
What happens ? "Why ? 

If you have followed the course of this work 
you may have noticed that we studied the struc- 
ture of the stalk as we worked : its length, taper- 
ing toward the top: its joints, ringed strongly; 
its pith: its glassy hard covering; the shape of 
the sections, which made them good for fiddles, 
cylindrical, save for one concave groove. Each 
of these features was of use to us, enabling us 
to do a special thing. Later, when studying the 
science of plant structures, these children will be 
ready equipped with a knowledge that will be an 
immense advantage. 

I have given this illustration to show how 
varied and rich are the experiences children have 
when encouraged to look about them and play 
with what they find. .Also the ways in which 
a mother can further their plans, adding her ex- 
perience to theirs. 



K.N.— 17 



"The greatest contribution ... is discovering to them 
problems which challenge their attention, the solution of 
which for them is worth while." — Naomi Norsworthy. 



236 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



XXV. WEAVING 



A LITTLE piece of oilcloth makes a good covering 
for the kitchen floor. We had none, so I told 
Helen she might make a play-one by pasting 




DESIGN ilAUli WITH SQUARES 

heavy paper in oilcloth patterns. I found an old 
note-book with a smooth brown cover, and 
marked this cover into inch squares, very accu- 




DESIGN MADE WITH HALF-SQUARES 

rately. Then I did the same with a piece of heavy 
terra cotta (an old pamphlet cover) and let Helen 
cut them out. Then she had tablets in two shades, 



with which she laid patterns. After she had 
played with these a while I told her to cut some 
of them in half from corner to corner to make 
triangles. These made prettier and more varied 
figures. One of these patterns she chose to paste 
on a square of cotton cloth for the oilcloth. 

For the living-room she raveled a piece of 
woolen cloth ; then, as she noticed the threads 
going under and over each other at right angles, 
I explained that these were named the warp and 




DESIGN MADE WITH THREE COLORS 

woof of all woven cloth, and told her she could 
weave paper like it. The kindergarten mats 
would do well here, but as you may not have 
them I will give the directions that I used for 
making the mat, which answers to the warp, and 
the strips, which are the woof, of a paper rug. 
A five-year-old child who is used to folding and 
cutting and playing with the rectangular blocks 
would be able to carry out the directions with 
a little help. 

Take an oblong of tough cover-paper 5x7 
inches. 

Place a dot half an inch from each corner on 
the edges of the oblong. 

Connect opposite dots with a pencil-mark 
guided by ruler. 

This makes an oblong within the edges of the 
paper. 

Measure the short edges of this oblong and 
dot into one-inch spaces. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



237 



Connect these dots, making three more lines 
parallel with the long edges. 

Fold short edges of paper together and cut 
from folded edge on penciled lines (five of them) 
to short edge of penciled oblong. The mat is ready 



I 1 ^ 



THE PLAN OF THE MAT 

for strips. Cut these one inch wide and five inches 
long. They can be woven in with the fingers. 

Start every strip under the half-inch strip that 
forms the frame of the mat. Then let the first 
one go over one, under one, and so on. The next 
strip alternates with it — under one and over one, 
and so on. The third repeats first, the fourth 
repeats second, and so on. 

Mats may be cut in half-inch strips and woven 
in the same way, or patterns varied by altering 
the number-arrangement. 

For example, the strips may be drawn over and 
under two. Another time a mat may be woven 
in threes. Another pattern that is easy is : 

First strip : over one and under two. Repeat. 

Second strip: under one and over two. Repeat. 

Third strip: repeats first, etc. 

Box Pattern 
First strip: over three, under three. 
Second strip : over one, under one. 
Third strip: over three, under three. 
Fourth strip: under three, over three. 



Fifth strip: under one, over one. 

Si.xth strip: under three, over three. 

Seventh: repeats first: eighth repeats second, 
and so on through to thirteenth, which repeats 
seventh. 

Other patterns can be invented indefinitely. 
These mats are not only good for doll-rugs but 
can be converted into many pretty little articles 
for a child's gifts to others. Calendars can be 
mounted on them, or one may be lined with pretty 
paper and folded corners to center like an en- 
velope, a square of cotton wadding enclosed, 
with sachet powder or lavender flowers inside, 
for a handkerchief sachet. 




BOX PATTERN 

Pretty as these things are, they are frail, and 
the weaving-idea is better carried out in real tex- 
tile material, for which a loom is needed. 

The Simplest Loom 

Draw an oblong on a piece of heavy cardboard 
as directed for a paper mat. Mark off the ends 
of this oblong in quarter-inch spaces. Punch a 
hole in each dot. Use hatpin, darning needle, or 
small bodkin for this, if you have no punch. 

White twine will do for warp; colored twine 
is prettier. Thread a darning needle with it. Put 
it through a corner hole. Carry it across to the 
opposite hole. Make a short stitch on the re- 
verse side of card by putting needle into next 
hole. Carry thread across length of card as be- 
fore and continue until holes are all filled. You 
will have to loosen and pull thread through from 
hole to hole as you go on with the sewing, for it 



238 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



takes much too long a thread to allow for break- 
ing it off as in ordinary darning. Fasten the 
thread at the last hole on the wrong side by sew- 
ing under and tying to next stitch. 

Now the loom is strung and ready for the 
woof. For a first rug it is best to use short 
lengths of yarn. Different colors may be used, 
making "hit and miss" or stripes. 

Not all five-year-old children can string the 
loom in this way, but where there are older and 
younger in the same family or associated in this 
work, the older can measure and string the 
looms for the younger. It is then a contribution 
to the little ones and is pleasing to both parties. 
It is fine number-work to do the measuring and 
drawing. 

Round Rugs 

Little circular cards are to be had at the kin- 
dergarten supply-houses punched with one hole 
in the center and a ring of them around the edge. 




WE.WING A ROUND RUG 

If you do not care to order them they can be made 
at home. 
Thread the warp from the outside to the cen- 



ter, making short stitches at the edge on one side. 
When threaded it looks like the spokes of a 
wheel on one side. Thread the darning needle 
with as long a piece of yarn as the child can 
manage and begin weaving over one, and under 
one, continue tying new threads on when neces- 
sary until margin is reached. Fasten thread and 
cut or tear card from the weaving. 

Tarn o' Shanter Cap 

To make a cap, thread round loom with long 
stitches on both sides. Into center, into marginal 
hole, back to center. Weave (or darn) as before. 
When one side of card is filled with woof, turn 
card over, and go on weaving as before until 
size is reached that fits doll's head. Fasten woof- 
end. Pass a needleful of thread around the woof 
strands at center of circle, tying them tightly 
together. Fasten firmly. Cut ends of warp on 
reverse side of card and tie in pairs to hold under 
side of cap in a firm edge, keeping woof from 
fraying out. 

Hammock for Doll-House 

Take piece of cardboard and mark as for oblong 
loom. Fasten curtain ring at middle of each end 
of card. There must be a space of three to two 
inches between this ring and the oblong that 
outlines loom. 

Tie a piece of string (warp) in ring. Thread 
it through needle. Pass it through a hole at end 
of row of holes. Carry it across to end hole 
opposite. Put it through and tie to ring at that 
end. Take another piece of string of same length 
and do same. Repeat until all holes are filled. 
Weave as before. Tie ends of yarn that make 
woof in pairs all down sides of hammock to hold 
firm. Tear card free and tie a long string in 
each ring to hang hammock by. 




WE/WINC; A II.\MMOCK 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



239 



XXVI. MAKING DOLL-DRESSES 



The doll plays a large part in childhood: the 
beloved companion of the three-year-old, the 
actor in the dramas of the four-year-old, and 




L 



TWO WAYS OF MAKING A KIMONO 

these and more to the older child ; for now a 
doll is to be not undressed and left lying in cold 
nakedness, as is so often the case earlier. It is 
to be dressed as well, and clothes made to order. 

For doll's dressmaking 
and for acting plays the 
small dolls are much the 
best. 

First, without sewing, 
try this pattern shown me 
in my childhood by a 
young lady who seemed 
to me then the most beau- 
tiful creature that ever 
walked the earth. 

That such a being 
should condescend to show 
me how to improve on my 
first attempts at dressing 
seemed a miracle. I pass 
on the pattern. The glamor 
it still holds is my own. 

Cut a circle of cloth. Fold it in half, in half 
again. Snip off the corner at center. Open and 
put doll's head through opening. Cut two tiny 
armholes.* Put doll's arms through and tie with 
a sash. 

Kimono from Half Circle 

Cut a half circle of cloth. Wrap it around 
doll's shoulders, straight edge at neck. Cross 



* We used to make this arm-opening by folding the goods 
and cutting a V-shaped notch. This gave the effect of a 
sleeve, the apex of the V coming at the doll's wrist and the 
wide part at the shoulder. — J. E. B. 



over in front and snip armholes. Pin a belt or 
tie a sash around the waist. 



Kimono Pattern 

Fold a sheet of paper in half. Lay doll on it, 
neck across folded edge, arms outstretched. Cut 
across bottom at ankles, across width at wrists 
of doll. Shape out under arms and slope outward 
to edge of skirt. Take up doll. Fold pattern in 
half, lengthwise. Cut a semicircular hole at angle 
on folded edge for neck opening. Cut a slit 
downward from this for opening. 

It needs a bit of thinking for a child to work 
this out in paper and then in old cloth, until she 
learns to leave what seems an unnecessarily wide 
allowance for sleeve and body widths. She does 
not realize how much cloth is taken up in cover- 
ing the thickness of these members. 

I think it is a good plan to let children try their 
own ways of cutting and fitting and fastening 
up the dresses, until they have some notion of 
the difficulties and have tried their own devices 
to meet them. That is the order Nature imposes 
on us in all invention. Then after this trying 
the patterns are appreciated. 

Another way to get at a pattern would be to 
let the little girl lay her own kimono out straight 
and cut a pattern free-hand in miniature. 

Clothespins make good dolls, especially when 
many are wanted, as for a party or wedding, or 
a procession, or to fill the streets of Sand-Table 
Town. With gray skirts and white capes and 
circular caps gathered at the outer edge into a 
"mobcap," these look like Puritan women. Fea- 
tures may be marked in pencil or wax crayon. 

Flower Dolls 

\\'ho has not made hollyhock ladies? Turn 
a blossom upside down. It will stand in spread- 
ing skirts. Pin a smaller flower upside down on 
the green knob of the calyx. Let them walk two 
and two demurely, like boarding-school misses of 
the seventies, or dance in a "flowery ring." 

So much for the dolls and doll-house. There 
is much more that might be said and done, but 
let us pass on to another kind of material and 
other tools. For each one has its suggestiveness, 
its own problems to be encountered, and its own 
lessons of resistance and training in muscular 
control. 



240 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



XXVII. MODELING 



This occupation continues to be of absorbing in- 
terest and of as great value as in the preceding 
year. It is such a splendid training for the sense 
of form that it is desirable to have the clay jar 
in readiness. 

Autumn fruits, nuts, and vegetables, animals 
and birds, bowls and dishes, flower-pots, flower- 
forms in relief, are all suitable subjects. 

In modeling fruits and vegetables it will help 
to notice the relation of the thing to be modeled 
to a ball and roll the clay in the rounded palms 
until it is spherical, then modify it : to a tomato 
by flattening a little, or to a pear by rolling more 
at one end and then adding more clay, welding 
it on by pressing and smoothing and rounding it 
with the fingertips. A bit of twig thrust in for 
a stem is more satisfactory than to model a stem, 
as the latter is too fragile. 

Animal-Forms 

Begin with something with which the children 
are very familiar, such as one of their pet rabbits. 
It is well to have the lively model near by, though 
the children will not often compare their work 
with the object to be copied. They work from 
the picture left in the mind by previous acquaint- 
ance with the thing. 

Notice the general shape of the body. In the 
mouse, rabbit, and squirrel it is almost egg- 
shaped, from the round of the back, including 
haunches, to the tip of the nose. Model this 
shape and then add shaping of haunches, nose 
and ears and tail. 

The little toy animals make good models. The 
forms are well done and so small that the chil- 
dren can pass their hands over them and fed as 
well as see the form. 

Toy dishes can be dried awhile and then baked 
in the oven of the range. This will make them 
a little more lasting, but to be hard as real pot- 
tery they need to be fired in a real pottery kiln, 
which is not worth while, as they will be making 
things in the later years that they will really 



want to keep. The main thing in their minds 
now is the play of the moment, and in ours the 
training in seeing and creating that this work 
gives them. 

Flower-pots made large enough to hold a bulb 
or a few seeds can be made and used for their 
spring planting. 

Flower Forms in Relief 

These figures serve as a record of the beauti- 
ful shapes of some of the spring flowers. They 
may be used as paper-weights. 

Mold a ball about two inches in diameter. 

Flatten it by passing on the smooth table, first 
on one side and then on the opposite, until it is 
about a third of an inch thick. 

This makes the plaque or background. 

Three-leaf Clover. — Roll three little balls about 
half an inch in thickness. Elongate them a little 
by rolling and press them out into ovals (not too 
thin). Lay them in the center of the plaque in 
clover shape. Roll a stem and apply. 

Four-pctaled Poppy. — Follow same plan as 
above. 

Fh'e-pctalcd Flower (apple blossom or rose). — 
Notice the cupping of the petals and their nar- 
rowing to the point at the center, also the cluster 
of stamens that may be simulated by a little ball 
planted where the petals meet and stabbed with 
a toothpick until it is deeply roughened. 

Si.v-pctalcd Flower (daffodil or narcissus or 
Chinese lily). — Notice the pointing of the petals 
and the ridging in the center. A tiny green ring 
in the center surrounds three tiny dots (pistil). 

In all modeling remember to have the clay well 
worked and soft enough to feel elastic and greasy 
as you smooth or press it. Without this the 
children can do nothing with it. 

Plasticine is to be had at the kindergarten sup- 
ply-houses and will not dry out. Plasteline has 
a less disagreeable odor, Moldolith hardens, but 
may be soaked out soft again. Permodello will 
harden as if baked without baking. 



XXVIII. NATURE STUDY 



Autumn Walks 

Autumn is a fine season for rambles afield. It 
used to be our regular custom to take the chil- 
dren for long tramps on Sunday afternoons espe- nuts, beechnuts, or chestnuts. 



cially, when we would come home loaded with 
spoils — branches of scarlet oak leaves, stalks of 
milkweed pods, cocoons on bare twigs, pockets 
weighted with red thorn-apples, acorns, hickory 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



241 



When we went in the direction of "Mossy 
Hill," so named by Nancy, she loaded us all down 
with such quantities that we were fairly stagger- 
ing under "just this one piece more." This every 
southern child knows makes the loveliest moss 
houses, built around tree-trunks and kept green 
with frequent sprinklings, and it can be furnished 
with cobble-stones and twigs, with acorns for 
dishes. 

The red rose-hips and haws figured as fruit 
at doll feasts, and then were strung. The leaves 
made the mantel beautiful awhile, and some were 
ironed with a flatiron passed over beeswax and 
put away for Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving dec- 
oration. 

The milkweed pods were so beautiful that we 
painted their pictures and then used the down 
to stuff doll-pillows, with lace casings thin enough 
to let the silky down show. 

Pretty stones and snail shells were put in our 
collections. Crawling caterpillars were great 
finds, to be carefully brought home and with them 
the plant on which they seemed to be at home 
for food. We made homes of shoeboxes, punched 
airholes in the lids, set the leaves in a bottle of 
water inside, and sometimes were rewarded by 
finding that a cocoon had been spun overnight. 

Harvesting 

In gathering the yield of the home garden we 
notice the different kinds of corn, the color, depth 
of kernels, and the arrangement in rows on the 
cob. We put away sweet corn for parching, pop- 
corn for winter-evening poppings, and pumpkins 
for their many good uses. Each has its appeal 
to the senses, to be felt, weighed in the hands, 
smelled, and in good time tasted. A guessing 
game is fun. Blindfold each child in turn, and 
see if he can distinguish each vegetable by its 
odor. Do the same with feeling, which is a good 
test for carrots, beets, turnips, salsify, etc. 

Special nutting parties make great occasions, 
long remembered. We often noticed that some- 
one had been before us by the empty shells. When 
we examined them, we saw they had not been 
broken but gnawed in two. The whisk of a 
bushy tail and an angry chatter in the tree over- 
head gave a clue to the worker, who expressed 
vigorously his opinion of the two-legged invaders 
of his premises. 

Questions You Can Help Children Think Out 

What do squirrels eat? 
Do they put away food for winter? 
Where do they stay in cold weather? 
What other wild animals spend the winter near 
us? 



Where do the rabbits live? Chipmunks? Go- 
phers? Fieldmice? 

Tree-Life 

Notice twigs from which the leaves have fallen, 
leaf-scar, and new bud. 

Distinguish by bud, leaf, bark, and color of 
bark the common trees, such as maple, hickory, 
willow, apple, and cherry. 

General Suggestions 

All the wealth of seeds, fruits, nuts, falling 
leaf, and safely packed bud tells the story of 
preparation for Winter and for continuing life 
in Spring. Little talks, stories, and songs help 
children to see this meaning. 

Helping to gather and store fruits and vege- 
tables is one of the best ways to impress children 
with our dependence on these foods. Where 
there is no home garden children may be taken 
to a farm or truck-garden, and every city child 
can visit markets and fruit-stands. 

After such visits let them tell Father, or some- 
one who did not go, what they saw, making it 
vivid by drawing some of the most interesting 
things. This will help hold them in their mem- 
ories clearly, and center attention on things that 
mean most to them. Expression of some kind 
is half the value of such experiences. Take cray- 
ons and tablet with you and have a sketching 
party on the spot when there is some special trip. 

Painting is naturally invited by the gorgeous 
colors of Autumn. Trees make splendid splotches 
of color seen against blue skies, good subjects for 
little fingers just learning to paint in broad 
washes. 

Play fruit-stand and market, and advertise the 
goods on sale in markets by pictures of fruits 
and vegetables done on big sheets of manila paper. 

It has worked well in my experience where 
there are several children, to let each one adopt 
his own tree and keep a record of it throughout 
the year — in autumn dress, bare in Winter, show- 
ing its first tinge of spring color, in blossom, 
and last in full green. Twigs can be painted 
through the Spring, showing detail of leafage. 

The older kindergarten children much enjoyed 
looking over these records, which I labeled and 
put away for each child and gave them at the 
close of school in June. 

During late autumn walks abroad you may set 
the children to hunting for leaf-mold for their 
window boxes and pots. Learn to distinguish 
this and loam from clay, by the bits of rotted 
leaf, twigs, and rootlets. See the shining par- 
ticles of sand mixed with it. Distinguish it by 
smelling the earthy odor, let the fingers feel its 



242 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



soft crumbliness, and the eyes take in its rich, 
brown color. Contrast it with the smooth, hard, 
clay texture. Let wet mold and wet clay dry in 
the sun and see which one would be the better 
for tender roots and thirsty mouths. (Have plants 
mouths?) 

In digging under the fallen leaves you may 
find the brown, dry leaves of the hepatica, or 
green ones of the violet. Dig deep and bring 
them home with plenty of earth about the roots 
and plant in your wildflower garden in a shady 
spot. Add to it in springtime the characteristic 
woodflowers of your locality. It will be a joy 
for countless .succeeding Springs to you as well 
as to the children. 

In your hunt for roots and mold look out for 
insects in winter quarters, under stones, logs, and 
the crevices of bark. Count the kinds found. 

Winter 

While the outside plants are hidden is a good 
time for window-gardening. The cook will ap- 
preciate a box of chives and parsley, and the 
canary a tender lettuce leaf now and then. It 
is quite possible. 

Winter ice, frost, and snow make sports the 
great thing now. The sand-table can be turned 
into a miniature skating rink or frozen pond 
by imbedding a sheet of glass and sloping the 
banks down to it. Cut paper skaters, fold paper 
sleds, build little houses on the bank of blocks 
or paper. Sprinkle cotton snow over the sand 
if you wish. 

How does the ice look in making? Notice a 
puddle. Ice fingers are shooting across it, like 
straight, sharp-pointed spears. How is snow 
made? Catch the falling flakes on a dark coat 
and look closely. Use a magnifying-glass to see 
the wonderful stars. Let the children draw what 
they see. Then show them the snow crystals in 
the Bookshelf, vol. IX, page 64. Let them fold 
and cut crystal forms as pictured in the next 
section of this volume. 

If you can get mineral crystals, such as quartz, 
galena, amethyst, or rock salt, that are very strik- 
ing and plain in their angular forms, it would 
be a good time to get them out for a feeling-and- 
guessing game. Notice how soft coal breaks in 
angular chunks. This has a crystal form also. 

Make a saturated solution of salt. Pour it in 
a saucer and let it evaporate. Lay strings over 
the edge of the saucer into the solution and 
notice what happens to them. 

Spring 

Now the seeds collected last Fall can be brought 
out and those that need an early start planted 



in window-boxes. The bulbs that were put in 
their pots before Christmas are brought into the 
light and warmth and watered. 

Just to see plainly how a seed starts to grow, 
put some large lieans to soak in warmish water in 
a saucer. Cover with cotton and put near the stove. 
Watch the overcoat grow loose and wrinkly. 
Then it tightens and two fat halves of the bean 
pop out. What a wonder of a tiny plantlet 
is packed within ! Just a pair of folded leaves 
and a white rootlet that grows so fast you can 
almost see it move. 

Let each child "take its picture" every morn- 
ing, as we took the snapshots of the baby every 
few weeks. Of course it must be put to bed in 
the earth and watered every morning. Note the 
gradual lifting of the earth as the bean-leaves 
"back" out of the soil ; the greening and thin- 
ning of these storehouses of food. Ask where 
the plants get the stuff to make it grow so fast, 
and where the children get it? Has the bean 
a mouth? 

Put some oats on a piece of cheesecloth tied 
over the top of a glass of water. Let the cloth 
sag into the water until sprouts appear. Note 
growth of roots. Where are the mouths likely 
to be? Paint the picture of glass and contents 
several times. 

Cut the tapering root from a carrot, hollow it 
out and tie a string to it and hang it stem end 
down in a window. Keep water in the hollow, 
and watch greenery appear. Paint picture. Keep 
record of a bulb's progress in the same way. 

Keep a lookout for the first hint of swelling 
treebuds. One year I brought twigs of willow, 
lilac, and cherry to the kindergarten at Hull 
House in February. We sorted them out, each 
in its own glass of water, looking well at them 
as I named them. Every morning some child 
was deputed to keep the water fresh, and we 
looked them over. The first hint of green ap- 
pearing on the lilac was hailed as an event, 
and finally even the cherry bloomed long before 
there were any signs of green on the outdoor 
twigs. 

These city children lived a quarter of a mile 
from a tree worthy the name, yet their interest 
grew keen in the pet twigs, and in March, when 
we made our first pilgrimage to the bare little 
square, by courtesy a park, the children scam- 
pered ahead and instead of frolicking on the 
grassplot, as in former trips, they all clustered 
around a forlorn syringa brush, peering into it 
as if some wonder hid therein. I thought it must 
be nothing less than a bird's nest. "Children, 
what have you found?" I called. "We're looking 
for the green leaf-buds," they shouted back. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



243 



I recognized in the answer an unconscious quo- 
tation from a song we sang, 

"God sends the bright spring sun, 
To melt the ice and snow, 
To start the green leaf buds, 
And make the flowers grow." 

Just a little noticing, watering, an occasional 
painting of the twigs, and what a door had been 
opened leading to plant-life for Tony, Solly, An- 
nunciata, and all the rest I 

Finding that trees do blossom, we look later 
for blossoms on every tree, and find winged 
maple-keys, that flutter down and stick upright 
in the soft lawn, shy oak catkins that hide be- 
hind leaves of the exact shade of their own 
green, pussy willow that changes from gray fur 
coat to yellow powdered gown. 

Pond Life 

When Helen and I sat on the porch one warm 
evening in late January we heard a soft croak- 
ing from the pond in the pasture lot. Could it 
be frogs singing their spring-song thus early? 
We must not let the time escape us for taking a 



dip-net and hunting for the jelly-like masses of 
frog's eggs that I knew would soon after be 
found in clusters about the stems of rushes. 

A glass jar makes a fair aquarium for a child, 
especially if some water weed can be put in it 
to supply oxygen for the animal life to breathe. 
Snails, tiny minnows, and water-beetles make a 
good beginning. Water must be changed daily 
by dipping out and gently pouring in fresh of the 
same temperature. 

Cocoons 

Happy is the child who has the privilege of 
seeing his own moth from his own cocoon. One 
day in April a big brown Polyphemous appeared 
on the study-shelf under the cocoon which had 
a hole in the end. He was too weak to fly and 
his downy velvet wings were wet and crumpled. 
We watched him slowly unclose and fan them to 
and fro, and at last he made a wavering flight 
to the window. A good model, he posed there 
for our painting. But he refused to uncurl a long 
tongue to suck up the honey as the brown butter- 
fly did the drop I placed on my finger-tip last fall. 



XXIX. MORE EASY CONSTRUCTIVE PLAY 

Paper-folding has some forms that children en- front-to-back edge to make an oblong, opened, 
joy and that are easy, if one will only observe and right folded to left-hand edge, making an 
one little trick, which is this: after folding the oblong. When this is done, the paper is creased 









A SOLDIER C.'\P WITH A COCKADE 



diagonals of a square — corner to corner making 
triangles — it must be opened into a square and 
turned the other side up; then the paper is folded 



in such a way that if it is turned one side out 
it will fall as in Fig. 3; if turned the other side 
out it will take the shape of Fig. 7. It is im- 



244 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



possible to make the canning soldier-cap and the 
equally fascinating sailboat without observing this 
matter of folding the diagonals and then turning 
the paper over before folding the diameters. 

Fig. 3 shows the first step in making the cap. 
It may be fringed across the long edges aiul used 
as a candle-shade. A strip of paper rolled serves 






11 12 

AN UMBRELL.\. A FLOWER, .WD A BOAT 

for a candle, an empty spool for candlestick. 
The shade is fastened on by a pin run through 
the apex of the shade and top of the candle. 

Fig. 4 shows one sharp corner folded up to 
the right-ang4ed corner and creased. Fig. , 



Fig. 7 is often called an umbrella when a stick 
is thrust in for a handle. Fig. 8 shows it turned 
with open side up, pasted on a card with a stem 
of green paper and green leaves, to make a con- 
ventional flower. 

Fig. g .i^hows the same with the right angle on 
top turned down to tlic opposite one, and I'ig. lo 
shows it turned over antl with 
the other right-angled corner 
turned down. Fig. 1 1 shows 
it with this right-angled cor- 
iK-r tiiriK-il l),ick. first to the 
lop and then to the crease 
running across the middle of 
the square and the bottom 
thick corner folded over to 
meet it. Fig. \2 shows the 
boat set ready for a good 
lilow into the pocket-like sails, 
which will send it sailing 
across a polished table. If 
dipiied in melted paraffine this 
or any other pajier boat will 
lie ready for real water. 
Other forms can be evolved from the flower 
shape that precedes this, inchiding a balloon. Can 
anyone study it out ? 

Snow-Crystal Cutting 

Take a circle of thin paper and fold it in half. 
Fold this half circle again in half. 







SNOW TRVST.NL Ct'TTlNr. 

shows this repeated with the otlier sharp corner. 
Now there is a triangular cap with a square on 
one side split in two triangles. Fig. 6 shows 
the right angles of these two small triangles 
folded over to the "crack" between them, making 
a cockade. 






FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



245 



Open into half circle, and notice crease mark- 
ing middle of straight edge. 

Fold one-half of the straight edge upward un- 
til its end touches the curved edge and adjust it 
so that a segment is folded over equal to the 
one in view (Fig. 2). 

Fold the other straight edge backward in the 
same way. The half circle should now be in 
thirds (Fig. 3). 



Crease firmly and cut from corner to corner 
in straight line. (See dotted line in Fig. 4.) 

Fold this triangle in half, so that the thick 
corner is divided in half; draw dotted line par- 
allel with one edge and cut in it. (Fig. 5.) 

Open. (Fig, 6.) 

Fi^s. 7, 8, and 9 show variations made on the 
foundation 5. 



XXX. FESTIVALS 



These take a big place in the life of children, 
anticipated so long in advance that they are great 
incentives to preparation that can be continued 
for a period of days and even weeks. They are 
centers in themselves, full of meaning. Around 
them cluster tales, songs, games, and each calls 
for something to be made or arranged' in which 
children can take part with zest. 

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Easter, 
and the civic birthUays, Washington's, Lincoln's, 
Lee's, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, are all 
of them occasions of meaning. Of course Christ- 
mas is for children The Great Day of the whole 
year, and its preparation, masked in secrecy and 
surprise, begins long in advance. Valentine's 
Day and Hallowe'en are the children's own, dedi- 
cated to merrymaking. May-day, once the day 
for young lovers in Merry England, is now the 
children's day exclusively. 

We owe a debt to childhood for maintaining 
joy, poetry, and spring in a tense and weighted 
age. Let us pay it by preserving to them their 
holidays, each with its full, its best significance, 
its poetry and symbolism. 

Family birthdays too can be celebrated with 
some special treat. Children can make small 
gifts, that will have enlisted their most careful 
work because it is for someone else. Clean hands 
and neatness seem essential when a present is 
marred by inattention to these matters. 

Let us look at some things that can be made 
that will go into some of these celebrations. 

Hallowe'en 

This festival grew out of All Hallows' Eve. a 
religious festival. Nothing of its original mean- 
ing remains in this country, save the by-product 
of tricksy elf, witch, and ghost, probably a de- 
generation of the original belief that the spirits 
of the departed came to earth and communed 
with the living. 

"How long is it to Hallowe'en, Mother?" 
"Two weeks from to-night, my dear." 
"Goody ! only fourteen days more. Won't you 



ask Daddy to take us out in the country where 
we can get pumpkins and bring them home to 
make Jack-o'-lanterns?" 

"What's that about Jack-o'-lanterns?" says 
Father, coming into the room at that moment. 
"No pumpkins to play with this year, food is too 
scarce to waste on playthings." 

"Oh, Daddy, please; just one pumpkin?" 
"Not one, my dear. It wouldn't be right." 
"Never mindj" says Mother. "There are a lot 
of cereal boxes I have been saving on the top 
pantry shelf. Perhaps you can make lanterns of 
them." 

And the next time Mother came into the din- 
ing-room this is what she saw: a little girl hard 
at work drawing nose, eyes, and mouth on the 
side of a cylindrical box of heavy pasteboard. 
"Please, Mother, may I take your knife?" 
"Don't you want me to do it?" 
"No, please, I want to do it myself." 
When it was cut out she found some black cats 
in a magazine which she traced on thin paper, 
colored with crayon, and pasted on for decora- 
tion. We stuck a large piece of candle in the 
bottom with a little melted paraffine. When it 
was lighted it glared in a pleasantly terrific way, 
and featured largely in the procession of small 
white-clad figures that larked about the neigh- 
borhood- and wound up at our fireside, where 
they popped corn, ate apples, and told elf-tales. 

"I believe I like my Jack-o'-Lantern as well as 
if it were a real pumpkin," was the final verdict, 
echoed' by every child present. 

Thanksgiving Day 

The celebration of this day, with reminders of 
its origin in Puritan New England, is best left 
to the older children. For the little ones its 
significance is best understood as a harvest fes- 
tival. The younger children can learn to make 
souvenirs for the dinner-table, little folded dishes 
for the salted nuts, and turtles of table-raisins, 
with cloves for legs, head, and tail. They can 



246 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



a b 
c "a 




assist in the cooking operations, and best of all, 
can learn a thanksgiving hymn to be sung as 
grace before or after the feast. 

Nut Dishes 

Fold a square of paper in half diagonally both 
ways. 

Fold each corner over to touch the center, mak- 
ing an envelope shape. 

Turn paper the other side up, and repeat last 
folds, making a smaller envelope. 

Turn paper over and note four small squares. 
Tuck back the corners that meet in the center, 
each underneath the square of which it is a part, 
making four triangles. 

Turn paper over again; the other side shows 
four stiff triangles which meet in the center. 





NUT DISH— II 



Fold these center corners back to outside corners 
of square. Press firmly. 

Turn over on other side. Put a finger in the 
tiny triangular pocket, and with thumb and fore- 
finger of other hand pinch it till it doubles in 
half. Repeat with other three, and you have a 
tiny dish that stands on four tiny triangular feet. 

These might be used for saltcellars. 

Or, take a six-inch square of paper and fold 
it in half diagonally. Fold this triangle in half 
again, and once again. Note the right angle. 
Fold it down to touch the middle of the opposite 
(the longest edge). Fold it back again. Note 
crease parallel with long edge. Cut the whole 
paper through on this crease. 

Open and see cross with arms ending in trian- 
gles. Fold each of these triangles toward the 
center. Turn paper over and fold each square 
arm over the center square. Stand the paper on 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



247 



this center square with arms at right angles to 
it and triangular tips pointing out. 

Punch holes at meeting of arms and tie. 

Place-Cards 

These might be made of white cards with a 
little picture pasted at the left-hand end, such as 
would be appropriate to the day. You might 
draw a pumpkin on a card and let children color 
and cut it out and write names across it. A strip 



The taking of the gifts from the teacher and 
marching proudly with them to the smiling father 
or mother (one could seldom hope to achieve 
the presence of both) was a crisis, a triumph 
rehearsed in imagination many times in the fore- 
going weeks. 

We were waiting in the long dressing-room of 
a big public school in one of the dreariest, 
crowded neighborhoods of one of our ugliest dis- 
tricts. The Christmas exercises were over. The 



, ,,,,,,,,, ,,, I ,,,,,•: 3} •! I :} iiii'i} 1 -rrrrr 





Fig. 4 



HOW TO M.MCE THE STAR 



of Stiff paper pasted to the back will make the.se 
stand up in easel fashion. A little Puritan maid, 
drawn in silhouette, alternating with a Puritan 
man in broad-brimmed hat and full knee-breeches, 
would make good place-cards or souvenirs. 

Christmas 

This climax of all holidays, anticipated tfie 
long year through, is a day for giving by even 
the youngest. I used to notice in the kinder- 
garten that the children were wholly absorbed 
in making and giving, without a single thought 
of receiving a gift at the kindergarten Christmas 
tree. They each made two articles, one for 
Father and one for Mother. The moment grew 
tense when the time for stripping the tree came. 



Fin. 3 

mothers. Bohemian, Irish, and German, 
were waiting in the hall for the bell 
to ring for the dismissal, which would 
yield to each her young hopeful from 
the line of march. To while away 
the minutes, we recited the classic 
" 'Twas the Night Before Christmas." 
Five-year-old Charlie, son of a rough 
saloon-keeper, looked up into my face 
and said, "Merry Christmas to all and 
to all a good-night. Now Christmas 
is over, but next comes Easter. I love 
Christmas, and I love Easter. I love 
every day in the year, and everybody 
in the whole world." Was our kin- 
dergarten celebration worth while? 
We made a trip to the country this year and 
cut down our own tree. It was the prettiest one 
we ever had. Helen fancied all the folks who 
saw our Ford thus burdened envied our fortune. 
Mother made a trip to the stores and announced 
there was not a bit of tinsel to be had for trim- 
ming. 

"Never mind," said Helen. "We can make our 
own trimming." 

So we got out the box of all kinds of bright 
paper, and this is what we made. 

Lanterns 

Take a square of bright-colored paper. 
Measure one-half an inch from each corner on 
each edge. 



248 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Connect these dots with lines. 

Dot the lines on two opposite edges about one- 
quarter of an inch apart. 

Fold paper in half to bisect these lines. Cut in 
lines. 

The result is a "mat" such as we made for 
weaving. 

Bring edges of mat together so edges lap and 
paste. Parallel strips must run up and down. 

Attach paper strip for handle. 

Cornucopias 

Lap two adjacent edges of a square of paper 
and paste. 

Attach handle. 

If these are made of bristol-board or cover- 
paper, or of woven paper mats lined with these 
papers, they will be strong enough to use for 
candy and nuts. Otherwise they will be merely 
decorative. 

Bells 

Make exactly like cornucopia, but paste a little 
clapper to one edge and tie a string at the point 
to hang it by. These should be quite small and 
are a very gay trimming. 

Candles 

Roll a square of paper, beginning with one 
edge, into a cylinder. 

Paste securely. A flame-shaped piece of gilt 
or yellow paper pasted to the top makes it more 
realistic. 

Cut a notch in the bottom. Place over a twig 
and pin, passing pin through or under twig. 

Star 

Take a six-inch square of paper and fold in 
half to make an oblong. Place ruler along short 
edge at left hand, even with long edge. 

Place dots one inch and two inches from cor- 
ner. (See Fig. i.) 

Fold corner d over to dot 2. (See Fig. 2.) 

Fold corner e over as far as it will go. (See 
Fig. 3-) 

Fold edge x — y over to 2 — y. 

Cut line 2 — e. (See Fig. 4.) 

These may be cut from gilt paper, two thick- 
nesses pasted together, with a black thread put 
between to hang it by. 

With these decorations, and chains of red and 
gold rings, our tree was prettier than any we 
ever had. 

Christmas Presents 

Kindergarten sewing on fine perforations is 
under the ban because of the strain on eyes. But 



there are large cards with punched-out holes far 
apart that can be quickly and easily sewed with 
colored cotton or zephyr by darning needles, that 
are delightful to do and in moderation harmless. 
These can be had of the kindergarten supply- 
houses. If you use them get the simplest outlines 
and never let a child sew more than twenty min- 
utes in one period. 

Penzviper 

Circular card, maple or ivy-leaf design. Sew 
round outline once in and out, then round again 
to fill gaps. 




PENWIPER 

Lay card down on old white cotton cloth and 
mark around with soft pencil, and cut out several 
thicknesses. 

Attach to card by stitches through the center. 

Needle-Book 

Similar to above. Cut flannel leaves. Attach 
to edge of card. 

Match-Scratchcr 
Sew any simple design on oblong or square 
card. Glue sandpaper to back. Punch holes in 
top and tie ribbon-hanger in. 

Block-Printing 

This is such a good form of decoration for 
Christmas gifts made of paper, that it is given 
here, with a description following of a few ar- 
ticles to which it can be applied. 

Materials : Water-colors, soft-finished paper, or 
cotton or linen cloth, and blocks of small size 
in different shapes. 

Process: Mix plenty of color in a little pan; 
dip the end of the block in the color and press 
firmly on the paper or other material to be deco- 
rated. It takes practice to convey just enough 
and not too much fluid, and to press the end of 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



249 



the block cleanly down and then lift it without 
smudging. A little unevenness in depth of color 
in the print is not bad ; sometimes it gives a shaded 
effect that is distinctly good. Considerable play 
should be had with this new process before at- 
tempting any decoration on anything permanent. 

Patterns; Practice in pattern-making is delight- 
ful play and is best done as a straight border on 
cheap print-paper. Try placing squares in differ- 
ent relations and positions, such as a part touch- 
ing by corners, touching edge and corner alter- 
nating, the same overlapping. Then take circles 
or oblongs, and experiment with each alone, then 
with triangular prints. Then use two shapes to- 
gether, alternating them. 

Application: One of the simplest uses of this 
idea is to frame the Christmas pictures that are 
mounted on tinted paper or cards. Plenty of 
space should be left between the picture and the 
border and a pleasing margin outside the border. 
Calendars can be mounted below the picture. 
Picnic plates and trays can be decorated or trays 
of a child's own making. Some other suggestions 
are given below. 

Address or Note-Book 

Cut square of cover-paper 5x5 inches. 

Stamp a small design in each corner, or along 
each edge. 

Fold into oblong. 

Cut several leaves slightly smaller. Fold and 
sew, pin, or fasten with paper fasteners into the 
decorated cover. 

Burnt-Match Holder 

Punch two holes with a sharp pointed nail in 
the edge of a baking-powder can, opposite each 
other. 

Cut a rectangle of paper as wide as the height 
of can and long enough to wrap round and over- 
lap it. 

Decorate along top and bottom edges and glue 
around can. 

Punch holes to match those in can, and pass 
ribbon through for hanging. 

Tray for Bureau 

Take a square of water-color or cover-paper 
8x8 inches. 

With ruler find and mark points two inches 
from corners on each edge. 

Using ruler as guide, connect opposite dots. 

Draw lines from each intersecting point of 
these lines to corner nearest. 

Cut on this last line. 

Place ruler on one of the lines that outline 



square and score lightly with knife-point, and 
repeat on other lines. 
Bend edges of paper up. 

3 C C B 



\ 

\ 

\ 

N 
\ 
\ 
\ 




/ 
/ 

/ 




A A 
A A 




/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 

/ 

y 


N 

N 
\ 
N 

\ 



:b c c 3 

DI.\GR.\M FOR BURE.\U TR.W 

Let triangular ends of these edges overlap, 
punch holes in each pair and tie with ribbon. 
Decoration may be printed on rim before tying. 

The Easiest Things in Raffia 

This material, much used in basketry, is too 
hard for children of this age to weave, but there 
are many things to be made by winding, a few 
of which are described below. 

PicUire-Frame 

For this a circle-marker will be needed. 

Cut a circle five inches in diameter. 

Within this draw and cut a circle three inches 
in diameter. 

Wrap the resulting one-inch circular band with 
raffia. 

Cut another pasteboard circle slightly smaller, 
and glue to back of first, leaving opening at top 
through which picture may be slipped. 

Punch holes with bodkin and pass ribbon- 
hanger through and tie. 

Napkin-Ring 

For foundation use a circle of pasteboard from 
J^ to I inch wide. (This may be had from a 
ribbon bolt or cut from the end of a mailing tube.) 

Wrap a strand of raffia once round, passing 
through center and tie. Continue wrapping until 
nearly at end of strand. 

Lay end of new strand on ring and wrap old 
strand over it until it is firm, then begin wrap- 



250 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



ping with new strand, covering end of old strand 
firmly. Proceed in this way to end. 

When ring is covered, weave end of last strand 
in and out on inner surface of ring. 

This may be decorated and made more secure 
by threading a narrow ribbon into a darning 
needle and darning in and out once around ring 
at middle and tying in bow. 

H this method of lapping new over old strands 
does not seem practicable, the two strands may 
be tied in such a place that the knot will be on 
inside of ring. 

Pcn-lP'iper 

Cut circular disk of cardboard about three 
inches in diameter. 

Cut hole in center about one-quarter inch in 
diameter. 

Wrap, passing strand through center. 

Cut two circles slightly smaller from an old 
kid glove or cotton cloth and fasten to center 
of disk. 

Needle-Book 

Wrap two disks as above and fasten two circles 
of flannel between them at margin and decorate 
with ribbon bow. 

Trinket-Box 

Wrap circular band as for napkin-ring. 

Wrap two disks cut to fit ring for top and bot- 
tom of box. 

Sew one all around for bottom, and attach 
other at margin for cover. 

Doll's Broom 

Take a little round stick for handle. 

Cut raffia two inches long, lay a few on end 
of stick and wrap and tie with end of long strand. 
Continue placing short pieces and wrapping with 
long until broom is full enough, fasten end firmly. 

In all this work children will need help in 
making the firm fastenings necessary until they 
have learned how to manage it for themselves. 

St. Valentine's Day 

The accepted convention of our childhood was 
a lace-paper fantasy touched up with gilt and tiny 
bouquets, mounted on a folded sheet of paper, 
inscribed with a tender sentiment. No other form 
of valentine has seemed so resplendent, so prodi- 
gal in its promises of unlimited affection. The 
first plan offered below is fashioned after the 
old model. 

Take a square of paper and fold in a triangle. 

Fold sharp corners together, making a smaller 
triangle. 



Repeat, folding one sharp corner over to the 
opposite on one side of paper and the other on 
the other side. 

Cut from one short edge toward the long edge 
in a line parallel with opposite short edge of 
triangle. Repeat from long side and continue 
alternating, never cutting paper clear through to 
opposite side. It is best to draw lines to mark 
cuts. 

Unfold carefully and pull up from center in 
''Bird-cage." 

Mount this on a square of colored paper, and 
put verse on reverse side. Very pretty if done 
in thin white paper. 

Another Lacy One 

Fold as before and cut heart-shaped notches 
from the edges that are folded. 

This is prettier if long edge is cut in curves 
first. 

Open and mount on delicate tint of paper by 
tiny dabs of paste at corners. 

Hearts 

Fold square of paper in half and cut a heart 
from it. Practice until you have a satisfactorily 
proportioned pattern. 

Lay this on a red paper, draw around it, and 
cut out. 

Repeat on white paper, and tie two of these to 
back of red one. punching holes in "shoulders of 
hearts" for ribbon. 

Paste pictures on all three, or, let child select 
verse for you to write on one. 

Heart-Shaped Doors 

Fold paper in half, open and fold two opposite 
edges to center crease, double in half on crease 
and cut heart, leaving paper united at widest part. 

Open and write verse on inner face. 

Pictures may decorate heart-shaped doors. 

Graduated Hearts 

Cut three hearts of graduated sizes and punch 
and tie the smaller below the larger. Decorate 
. and inscribe. 

Easter 

Colored eggs and rabbits, lilies and butterflies, 
these seem a curious combination of things to be 
associated in a child's mind with a church festi- 
val. And yet all save the rabbit do symbolize 
awakening life from seeming death. He is a 
survival of an old German tale explaining in 
fanciful terms the origin of the colored eggs. 
The story is a good one to tell children of this 
> age. The preparation for appreciation of Easter 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



251 



as a renewal of life is given in the section on 
Nature Study, page 240. 

Hand Work for Easter 

Outline on cards very simply such flowers as 
the tulip, jonquil, and narcissus, and let children 
tint them in water-color. If these blossoms have 
opened in your own house, the children will be 
familiar enough with them to paint them free- 
hand, and after a little daily practice of this sort 
can put the picture on a card. Even though 
crude, it will be all their own work. Outline 
pictures for sewing can be ordered from the 
kindergarten supply-houses. 

Butterflies will be found in color in the 
Bookshelf, vol. Mil. page 356, that will make 
splendid copy for the children to draw by tracing 
through on thin paper and coloring in crayon or 
paint. After a good deal of "choosing" one will 
be found that can be cut out of the tracing paper 
and attached with tiny dabs of paste to a card. 

Some of the cards may be decorated with edges 
of the water-color gilt, to be had for very little 
at drug stores and stationers. 

In addition to these gifts, there are nests and 
clay eggs to be modeled and hidden in the garden 
for other children to find. The eggs should be 
thoroughly dried in the room, then in the oven, 
and tinted with thick water-color or calcimine. 

Let them make nests of dry grass, twigs, string 
and paper, in imitation of the birds' nests they 
found last fall, and hide them in fence corners, 
bushes, and other nooks. If you live in the city 
and have no yard, take them to a quiet corner of 
the park, inviting other children to the hunt. 



When you have developed a good butterfly pat- 
tern from studying the pictures, fold it in half 
and outline on paper similarly folded ; then cut a 
whole flock of butterflies. Tell children about 
the migrating butterflies, and propose to let a 
swarm loose in the living-room. Cut them in 
plain wrapping or manila paper, color, and string 
and festoon from light-fixtures to corners, on 
black thread. This is decoration for an Easter 
party. 

Blueprints 

These make pretty Easter cards. Get the blue- 
print paper at any place where photographer's 
goods are sold. It must be kept absolutely away 
from the light, or it will darken. 

Make a printing-frame of a piece of glass fit- 
ting exactly a piece of stiff flat board — binder's 
pasteboard will do. Strong rubber bands will 
hold the two together. 

Make an arrangement of a spray of blossoms 
or leaves or a spray of seeds, such as golden- 
rod, lay it on an oblong of blueprint paper on 
the board. Place the glass over it and clamp 
down with rubber bands. Lay it in the bright 
sunshine and leave it until the paper turns blue. 
Remove print and wash under running water un- 
til the blue ceases to run off. 

These make pretty decorations for calendars or 
other gifts for other seasons as well — blotters, 
match-scratchers, note-book covers, and for the 
inside and outside of scrap-books. 

It is great fun ioT the children to watch and 
make the prints, and it directs their attention to 
the grace and beauty of flower and leaf forms. 



XXXI. GOVERNING CHILDREN* 



EY MRS. EUNICE BARSTOW BUCK 



ous noise, for instance- 
anyway; but whining 



Whining and Kindred Ills 

Many of the more annoying things which we are 
apt to punish hastily — mischievous pranks or riot- 
will be outgrown in time 
fretfulness, peevishness, 
and sulking are germs of real character-disease 
which if not checked may infect an otherwise 
wholesome life. 

If a bit of a whine creeps into a voice we may 
say, "If you speak pleasantly I can do it. Whin- 
ers never get what they ask for," and we make 
it a point to see that they never do. Indeed, we 



are sometimes entirely deaf to their unpleasant 
tones. If teasing is known not to bring results 
other than general unhappiness, it is very seldom 
tried. Other symptoms call for pleasant isolation 
in a quiet place, always with the privilege of 
coming back as soon as happiness returns. 

Sometimes we discover when one of the chil- 
dren is out of sorts with the world that a cold 
is coming on, a tooth coming through, or the di- 
gestion a bit out of order; and the treatment 
called for is physical rather than mental or moral. 
Sometimes there are hours, even days, when 
everything goes wrong. Both children are cross. 



* Since Mrs. Newell does not deal with this important subject, we have asked Mrs. Buck, whose first sensible article 
we hope you have read, to continue. Please read her other article again in this connection. — The Editors. 

K.N.— 18 



252 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



disobedient, and "into everytliing," and confusion 
reigns. Mother is responsible ! It almost always 
means that she is physically or nervously below 
par, and that unconsciously her weariness has 
crept into her voice and manner, upsetting the 
whole household. In such cases a nap — perhaps 
even a day in bed or a wee vacation for her — 
will restore harmony and peace. 

We mothers must do everything in our power, 
by example and suggestion and penalty, to make 
our children realize that there is no place in the 
world for disagreeable people. 

Temper 

The spirited child has wonderful possibilities if 
he can learn self-control and have his energy di- 
rected in right channels. We hope that when 
Brother is a man certain things will make him 
so perfectly furious he will just have to make 
them change. Before that we may even be proud 
when he fights the school bully, for teasing a 
younger child. But such righteous wrath is very 
different from the petty irritableness that is ex- 
pressed in most nursery quarrels and by the 
wilder tempests which rage there. 

Quick temper is more or less a matter of nerves 
and temperament, and any praise or punishment 
for the same when this fact is not considered is 
unjust. When Sister is patient and calm under 
trying circumstances there is no real virtue — she 
is not even tempted to explode. Under similar 
provocation. Brother, who is. an intense, high- 
strung little fellow, might find it almost impossible 
to keep his self-control. Again, if he is nervously 
tired, things that at other times would not bother 
him at all will arouse a whirlwind of passion. 

He has always seemed to need physical pain 
occasionally to quiet mental disturbances. Before 
he could express his feelings in words at all he 
would bang his head on the floor as hard as he 
could when things went wrong, and the kiss that 
healed the bruise healed the troubled feelings too. 
Occasionally now, in certain moods, he will stamp 
and scream "no, no," to all suggestions and en- 
treaty, but a spanking calmly administered, or 
more and more often a warning that one will fol- 
low, if he can not stop within a certain number 
of counts, brings back our happy little boy. 

With some children— perhaps as administered 
by some parents — such drastic treatment would 
only increase the strength of the storm. It should 
never be attempted by a person who has not the 
physical strength to handle the child with assur- 
ance and dignity should he struggle, and of course 
there must be no sign of anger or annoyance. 
With our little lad milder methods never bring 



as speedy a recovery. He can sometimes be 
shocked back to manliness by having hands and 
face washed with a very wet cold washcloth, but 
if that does not work he is shut up until he is 
himself again. 

This last method is especially effective when 
the passion is directed against a person rather 
than against things in general. Once last Winter, 
when for several days the weather had prohib- 
ited outdoor play. Sister displeased him in some 
way and he flew at her, strikirfg and even biting 
in an ugly and most uncivilized fashion. We told 
him that a wild savage could not be allowed 
loose and we must shut him safely away in a 
prison. We carried him to the guest-room, which 
was farther from the rest of us than any other 
available place. After bringing up a small chair, 
a book, and his cut-out work, we locked him in. 
He screamed and pounded on the door for a 
while, but in fifteen or twenty minutes he was 
playing quietly and contentedly. At the end of 
two hours he was asked if he could be trusted to 
behave like a gentleman if we let him play with 
us again. He assured us that he could, and we 
were all good and happy together the rest of the 
day. 

What a diild in a temper needs is something 
to help him regain self-control in a way that will 
make a lasting impression of the undesirability of 
his passion. 

Obedience 

If our training has been properly constructive, 
there will be less and less need of commands as 
the children grow older. Requests will be gen- 
erally cheerfully complied with, and give an 
opportunity to decide between two courses of 
action. We parents sometimes forget how impor- 
tant this is. If a child's will is to grow to be 
strong for right-doing he must have the privilege 
of free choice whenever possible. We must do 
all we can to help him to wish the right and to 
make the result of the wrong choice unpleasant. 

The other day some of us were discussing an 
imaginary situation in regard to Jack and the 
door. We all agreed that the ideal would be for 
Father to say, "Jack, please shut the door," and 
the ideal — and the probable — response would be, 
"Certainly, Father," followed by a courteous 
"Thank you." If the answers were otherwise 
Father should say in answer to, "I'm too busy," 
or any other excuse, "I'm sorry," and leave the 
door open or close it himself. Jack's conscience 
would be sure to prick, and if he didn't get to 
the door ahead of Father he'd resolve to next 
time. If, however. Father makes an issue of the 
thing by commanding, "Jack, shut that door," and 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



253 



Jack says, "I won't," to say, "I will whip you 
until you obey me," is unjustifiable, for it gives 
Jack's will no opportunity to function. The sug- 
gestion was then added that perhaps Father might 
put it this way, if he had unduly forced the issue : 
"Take your choice. Jack ; shut the door or take 
a whipping" — strenuous will-training, perhaps, 
but not will-breaking. 

The discussion was of course quite theoretical, 
and we all realized the unskillfulness of Father 
in getting himself unwarily into such a box. Of 
course, we none of us mean to get excited about 
such unimportant things as doors with children 
who are old enough to reason, but the principle 
involved is suggestive, whatever the issue. We 
must all keep in mind what Henry Clay Trum- 
bull expresses so well in "Hints to Child Train- 
ing" : 

"There is a place for punishment in a child's 
training, but punishment is a penalty attached to 
a choice. No child ever oug'ht to be punished 
unless he understood when he chose to do the 
wrong in question that he was thereby incurring 
the penalty of that punishment." 

When we give a command we can wisely fol- 
low the sensible suggestions in Mary L. Read's 
"Mothercraft Manual": "Give it distinctly (to 
get attention), definitely (to get understanding), 
kindly (to get a cooperating spirit), and firmly 
(to get action)." 

Of course, as the Children grow older, our 
punishment for disobedience will more and more 
take the form of "natural consequences." The 
boy who can not obey is not man enough to have 
certain privileges; and the girl who can not do 
exactly as she is told can not be trusted to help 
Mother with the baking. 

Between the ages of tvifo and four, perhaps, 
if a child acts like a disobedient little animal he 
must be treated like one, and a tingling birch 
switch may be a useful addition to the nursery 
equipment. This method of discipline seems to 
me to have many advantages. In the first place, 
it maiies it easy to separate the sin from the 
sinner. We can cry, "Mother is so sorry that 
the little hands must be hurt," take the small 
ofifender into our arms for comfort afterward, 
let him know that we are sure he is going to be 
good, and then set him happily at work — helping 
Mother, if possible. It gives a chance for choice 
of action — "Is the pleasure of the misdeed worth 
the pain that will surely follow?" The retention 
of sympathy makes confession comparatively 
easy, and — best of all the incident is closed. 
The child really starts afresh. On the other 
hand, if we try to "reason" with him and make 
him "sorry," he feels vaguely that we are grieved 



and disappointed, and he gets nervous and de- 
pressed, and his whole day is spoiled. 

Such punishment as tj-ing the hands or making 
the child sit on a chair do not work in our family. 
They cause much shame and sorrow, but leave 
us only a child who is conscious of naughtiness 
rather than one who is truly resolved to be good; 
and the rest of the day is pretty sure to go wrong. 
A sensitive little tot is likely to become either 
hysterical or defiant when reasoned with, and 
the nerve-strain is great on both parent and child. 

We have had some amusing experiences. When 
Sister was not quite three she learned to say, 
"No, I don't want to," and it was then that we 
cut our first birch switch. It was only used 
twice, and the following conversations took place 
on those occasions. The first time: 

"Sister, run into the house, quickly." 

"Why?" 

"You have on socks and there are many mos- 
quitoes here in the grass to-night. Run along !" 

"No, I don^t want to." 

"Why, of course you want to do what Mother 
says ! Run along !" 

"No, I won't." 

"Very well. If the little legs can not run into 
the house. Mother will have to get a switch and 
switch them." 

"Switch them?" 

"Yes." 

"With a switch?" 

"Yes." 

"Will it hurt?" 

"Very much." 

"Do the little girls downtown get their legs 
switched when they don't do what their mothers 
tell them to?" 

"That, or something worse." 

".\nd you have a switch right there?" 

"Yes." 

"Well," with a great sigh, "I guess I'll go in." 

The second time she was playing in the water 
in the bath-room, and I calied, "Come, Sister, 
your hands are clean now. Dry them and come 
and play with us." 

"No, I don't want to." 

"They've been in water long enough. Come!" 

"No." 

"Sister, if you do not start before Mother 
counts five she must use the switch. One, two, 
three, four — five — !" And the switch was used. 

This happened twice, then — "Sister, come. 
Must Mother use the switch again ?" And a calm 
little figure appeared at the door. 

"Is it there in that room. Mother?" 

"Yes." 

"Can you reach it?" 



254 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



"Yes." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes." 

"Well, I'll come." 

The decision that obedience was wise and best 
seemed to be made for all time, and the switch 
was only mentioned to her a few times after 
that, and never again used. At three and a half 
she had practically outgrown the need of physical 
discipline, but Brother will require occasional 
doses of Oil of Birch for some time, I fear. 

Silence and Disaffection 

To-day Sister confessed a fault in the dearest 
way, adding, "I'm so sorry I did what I ought not 
to. Mother." Of course she was forgiven gladly 
and no punishment was needed. Keeping one's 
children's confidence, especially as they reach the 
age when they must begin to leave the home nest 
for sc'hool, is so much more important than the 
keeping of any rules and regulations. 

It is easy for Brother to "tell Mother all about 
it," but Sister is a strange child in some ways. 
When she is happy and good she just glows — her 
eyes are full of changing lights and her lips are 
sweet and eager. When things go wrong, how- 
ever, her _face changes into an expressionless 
mask and it takes a real effort to reach the little 
girl underneath. It would be very easy to lose 
her confidence permanently, but we try not to 
be harsh with her, and tactful suggestions and 
loving correction are increasingly received in the 
right spirit. 

Once last Winter when things had been harder 
than usual for us both, I told her a story of a 
little girl who did not like to talk things over 
with her mother. Each time she failed to tell 
about what had happened, a stone was added to 
a wall that began to grow between the two. This 
made the mother very unhappy, for she wanted 
to be near to her little girl always, and the hor- 
rid wall frightened her, but she could not make 
the child climb over or knock it down. At last 
one day something happened that made the little 
girl troubled and sad. She wanted so much 
to be comforted, but when she would have gone 
to her mother she found that the wall had grown 
so high that she could not climb over, and so 
strong that she could not knock it down. She 
was lonely and so unhappy there on her side ; 
and the poor mother was just as lonely and un- 
happy on the other side. They found at last that 
they could talk a little through a chink in the 
wall, and as they talked the chink grew larger 
until they could get their hands through. Then 
they pulled and pushed and poked, hurting their 
hands and making their hearts ache, until there 



was a hole big enough for the child to climb 
through. Then she sprang into her mother's arms 
and told her all about everything that had ever 
happened, and the mother told her many wise 
things. They lived happily ever after, for that 
little girl never let the least bit of a wall grow 
between herself and her mother again. 

When I said that the little girl did not tell her 
mother everything. Sister interrupted to ask shy- 
ly, "What was the little girl's name. Mother?" 
I said, "Perhaps it was Sally Smith," and went 
right on with the story. She listened soberly and 
was unusually quiet when I tucked her in that 
night. Since then she has really made an effort 
to talk more freely about "mistakes," and we 
sometimes say during quiet times together, 
"We're not going to let any wall grow between 
us, are we?" 

Lying 

The sensitive child is peculiarly susceptible to 
the Evasive Lie. As a child I would grieve for 
hours if I thought I had displeased anyone, and 
the most tragic memory of my own childhood is 
of a time when I told a lie to hide a wrongdoing. 
I could not bear to face my mother's distress if 
she knew what I had done. By the time both 
wrongdoing and lie were discovered, the sin had 
grown to such proportions in my eyes that I 
could not acknowledge even to myself that I had 
committed it, and I stuck to the falsehood to the 
bitter end. I am glad that the memory of that 
suffering remains so vividly in my mind, for it 
helps me to understand some of the curious men- 
tal processes of my own children. 

We sometimes make children lie when we are 
tired and nervous by "pouncing." When I said 
to Sister the other day in a quick and terrible 
voice, "Who turned the gas up?" it was her 
natural instinct of self-preservation that prompt- 
ed her to say, "I don't know." 

A friend told the other day of her husband 
calling to her in such a voice, "Are you pounding 
that ice in the new sink?" She was, but quick 
as a flash she took the bag out and set it on the 
floor, and said, "Of course not !" It's human 
nature ! 

When I was sure that Sister had turned up the 
gas in spite of her denial, I asked her quite casu- 
ally if the beans were boiling when she went 
into the kitchen. She answered that they were 
not, so she turned up the gas a little. I ex- 
plained that she really was not old enough to 
manage the stove and must speak to Mother the 
next time, adding that it was a big mistake not 
to tell Mother the truth when she asked first 
about it. Of course, she agreed and was very 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



255 



sorry, and I'm sure a bigger impression was 
made than if there had been a hasty punishment 
on the spot. 

The only time when we have been seriously 
troubled by untruth was after having a maid in 
the house who habitually lied out of things. For a 
while both children told the most awful "whoppers" 
with perfectly straight faces, and — so unnecessa- 
rily ! We cured the acute attack by first eliminating 
the source of the contagion, then by avoiding 
occasions for stumbling as much as possible, prais- 
ing the children for telling things straight when- 
ever we could, and by the use of patience and 
tact when errors were discovered. Once or twice 
we have washed a mouth with soap. In the 
extremest cases we have taken the position that 
we were unable to believe something of impor- 
tance to the child stated by him later, for "You 
did not tell me right about so-and-so — how can 
I be sure you are telling me right now?" 

Brother sometimes relates the wildest, most im- 
possible yarns. After listening with interest we 
say, perhaps, "How exciting! That's something 
you thought might happen, isn't it?" He gen- 
erally admitted quite frankly that it was, and we 
let it pass with but a word of caution. "He must 
be sure," we say, "when he tells stories, that 
people understand that he is only playing that the 
things happened." Vivid imaginations are great 
assets — we want to control, not quench them. 

We have never let the children hear the words 
"Lie" or "Liar." They are too ugly for boys 
and girls who are learning to distinguish and to 
tell the truth. 

Destructiveness and Mischief 

We find practically no tendency to destructive- 
ness in the nursery so long as there is plenty of 
material for constructive work at hand.' Certain 
mechanical toys invite disaster and are better 
kept out of well-regulated play-rooms. Broken 
articles, unless unusually precious, should be re- 
tired at once, for having them about rather en- 
courages carelessness. 

When Brother was four we gave him a small 
saw, a hammer, and a box of nails, with permis- 
sion to use any boards he wanted from the pile 
left in the cellar when the house was built. 
People asked how we dared have so young a child 
loose in the house with real tools — didn't he ex- 
periment with the furniture and woodwork? Of 
course not ! He was so busy using material 
legitimately that such a possibility never occurred 
to him — and you may be sure that we did not 
suggest it. 

Of course all children make mistakes some- 
times and accidents will happen in the best reg- 



ulated families. Where there is confidence be- 
tween ourselves and our children, however, a 
few words of sympathy, understanding, and sug- 
gestion are generally all that is needed to avoid 
troublesome mischief. 

We had a queer experience ^ith Sister long 
after we supposed her to have outgrown such 
possibilities. One day she stained her hands in 
some way, and in an attempt to get them clean 
used a bit of the contents of every bottle in 
the medicine cabinet. We tried our best to make 
her realize the danger of experimenting with 
liquids of which she knew nothing, but she did 
not seem to be impressed at all. The very next 
day she took my watch, which had stopped, and 
opening the back tried to make it go by pushing 
the wheels with a pin — with fatal result, of 
course. Again we seemed unable to make her 
realize that she had done anything seriously 
amiss. 

Finally, I said, "Sister, I'll have to do some- 
thing to make you stop and think whether things 
are right or wrong before you do them. What 
do you suppose would make you remember?" 

She replied quite calmly, "Why, I'm sure I 
don't know. Mother!" 

"It will have to be something pretty big, I'm 
afraid. If I put you to bed now and gave you 
just bread and water for supper, would you re- 
member next time that it is very wrong to ex- 
periment with other people's belongings? Or do 
you think that spanking the hands that did the 
mischief would do more good?" 

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd rather have the 
spanking," and she held out her dear pink hands 
with a smile of perfect trust. 

I had not spanked her for almost three years, 
and had certainly never expected to again, and — 
oh, it was hard! I found a ruler and made her 
■hold her hands out behind her so that I need 
not watch that vivid face, and — I did it, good 
and hard. Then I held out my arms and she 
sprang into them and we cried together. In a 
moment I was called to the telephone, and when 
I returned she was quite happily watching 
Brother's building operations, but with the poor 
hands held painfully away from her skirts, and 
she smiled lovingly and understandingly as I 
passed. Indeed she was more affectionate than 
usual for days, and her conscience has worked 
satisfactorily ever since. 

Sometimes naughty pranks are really very 
funny, but of course we must never laligh at 
them. Still more important, we must never tell 
of them in the child's hearing. Some parents 
seem to find it almost impossible to resist the tell- 
ing of tales about the cute youngsters whom they 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



"just can't do anything with," whether sharp 
little ears are present or not. The child then 
gets an exaggerated idea of his own cleverness 
and comes to feel that Father and Mother are 
really proud of the very things they scold about, 
and discipline becomes a more and more hope- 
less task in the household. 

Unpunctuality and Dallying 

When things drag in the nursery — when games 
are played languidly and it takes forever to put 
things away — we often find that the treatment 
needed is physical as well as moral. A romp in 
the open air may work a miraculous cure, and in 
extreme cases physic may be called for. 

For a while last Summer Sister was slower than 
molasses in January about everything she did. 
One afternoon, as an experiment, I took her 
temperature and to my astonishment and dismay 
found it 102° ! The next morning it was sub- 
normal, but late in the afternoon was unpleas- 
antly high again. The child was going through 
a siege of malaria, and dallying was the only 
external symptom besides the fever. 

There are many ways in which we can help 
our children to work while they work and play 
while they play. Recognitions are always more 
useful than penalties in this particular field — 
a tiny star pasted on a card when a certain task 
is done in record time, or some simple treat, or. 



best of all, just the joy of hearing Daddy told 
how quick and efficient they have been. A race 
is always fun. On her si.xth birthday. Sister really 
beat me getting dressed. 

Timing has a magic which all children love. 
"Let's see how many minutes it will take you 
to set the table," or "It's now just five minutes 
past. Let's see if you can go to the store and 
back by half past !" — these appeal especially to the 
little person who is just learning to tell time. 

When boys and girls first begin to play away 
from their own yard it is a very hard thing to 
come home at a certain hour. Indeed it is al- 
most too much to expect a five or six-year-old 
to hear the whistles when absorbed in an exciting 
game. Of course they must learn to keep track 
of time whatever they are doing; but we try to 
be very patient with unpunctuality of this sort, 
and as appreciative as possible when Brother and 
Sister do come home at the right time. 

A Recipe 

The ingredients given in a certain recipe for 
an ideal nursery atmosphere are "Non-interfer- 
ence," "Suggestion," "Substitution," "Tact," and 
"Fairness." We find that when we, as well-dis- 
ciplined parents, mix these prayerfully and season 
well with love, understanding, sympathy, and ap- 
preciation, the result is pretty sure to be happy 
children who are as "good as gold." 



CHARTS OF CHILD STUDY AND CHILD TRAINING 
FOR THE KINDERGARTEN PERIOD 

BASED ON THE FOREGOING ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION, "THE FIFTH YEAR" 

AND "WHAT A CHILD IS LIKE THE SIXTH YEAR," BY MARY L. READ, 

AND "THE KINDERGARTEN YEARS," BY IRVING E. MILLER 



THE CHILD'S RESPONSES 

His ever lively physical life expresses itself in 
two main channels : motor-action and construc- 
tive activity. 

When he tries to make anything that is small or 
fine he fumbles. 

His immediate surroundings and particularly the 
actions of adults start him in all sorts of imita- 
tive play. 

This constructive and imitative play shows con- 
sider'able imagination, and he develops the 
power of per.sonating various characters and 
activities. 

He often makes an ideal world for a time with his 
playthings and imaginings. 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 

These suggest that we give the first tendency 
opportunity through materials to encourage 
climbing, sliding, running, etc., and the second 
througli materials for building and making. 

It is evidently not time for him to do fine work 
or careful finish. 

We should give him materials, often of a homely 
character, that he can use for this purpose. 

The wider the experiences we give him the 
broader and bigger will such play be, and 
stories will tell him of an even larger world. 



Here fairy-stories begin to come in to give him 
the beautiful background for such play. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



257 



THE CHILD'S RESPONSES 

He does a good deai of taking apart and destroy- 
ing as well as putting together and building. 

He is constantly asking questions. 



He begins to put his ideas together now, and they 
are more definite than before. 



He associates his experiences better, and begins 
deliberately to recall and remember. 



As he puts his ideas together, he reasons from 
them. 



Every impulse tends toward immediate action, 
which often subsides soon and then swings into 
another direction. 



In his hand-plays now he seems to be interested 
almost wholly in self-expression, and is easily 
satisfied with a quick and hasty result. 



He is impatient when objects do not comply with 
his will. 



He is equally impatient with playmates who do 
not conform to his wishes. 



He is independent, to the point of rebellion at 
times. 



His religious feelings are spontaneous and lively. 



He begins now to idealize persons and try to imi- 
tate them, not only as to what th^-'' do, but as to 
what they plan and intend. 



WHAT THEY SUGGEST 

This is curiosity. Let us give him used-up ma- 
chinery that he may safely take apart, and take 
pains also to show him how things are made. 

Many of these, if he is really attentive, we should 
answer, but whenever possible we should en- 
courage him to find out for himself. 

Then let us give him more definite experiences. 
The Montessori methods have this advantage. 
Offer him more conscious sense-e.xperiences of 
smell, taste, sight, color, etc., particularly in 
connection with Nature. 

This suggests that we can start some sort of a 
program wnth him. For example, we can re- 
late his play to the seasons and the holidays. 
We can encourage collections. 

Constructive play, where plans and causes lead 
to results, should help here. Exercises like 
cooking, clay-work, and doll-dressing should 
help. 

This warns us of the peril of fatigue. Also this 
"motor flow," as Dr. Miller calls it, suggests that 
there are golden hours of attention and energy 
that we may take advantage of. 

Still, if we can show him'how he has accidentally 
made a likeness, with his drawing, for example, 
we shall often find that he becomes inspired to 
see if he can do better. His self-satisfaction 
grows less as his ideals get larger. 

Sometimes, not always, showing him that the 
right technique will bring a better result, will 
develop his patience. 

He needs more playmates, of his own age and 
older, who will not care very much about what 
he wants and will show him that he has to be 
content with his share. 

Much rebelliousness may be provided against by 
very early drill in right habits. There is a 
strong impulse to do what one has always done, 
and if exceptions are never permitted they are 
not asked for. Silence, solitude, and certain 
firm disciplinary methods are necessary now to 
keep this tendency in bounds. 

This, united with other impulses already men- 
tioned, suggests: letting religious teaching be in 
the form of stories, and religious practice con- 
sist of the habit of prayer and of spontaneous 
helpful and generous activities. 

We need to furnish him real heroes, and be such 
to him ourselves, and to give him ideal heroes 
in stories and verses. 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 

FOURTH TO SIXTH YEAR (From the Third to the Sixth Birthday) 

These refcrenees suggest helpful explanatory passages in "The Child Welfare Manual" 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 

[I. 275-280] 

General Development: 

Rapid growth of body and brain. 4th and 5th 

years; retarded before 6th year [I. 383; II. 

14]. 
Resistance to diseases good, 4th and Sth years. 

Tendency to early fatigue before end of 

period. Retardation common, 6th year [I. 

325-326]. 
Special pleasure in taste, Sth to 6th years [II. 37]. 
Muscular control gaining in strength and firin- 

ness [I. 279, 280]. 
Physical development toward close of period apt 

to be affected by school habits, confinement, 

poor sanitation and contagion, if exposed to 

such conditions [I. 275, 276, 390]. 
Weight: at 4 years, average 36 pounds; at 5 years, 

average 40 pounds; at 6 years, average 44 

pounds [I. 204]. 
Height: at 4 years, average 37^ inches; at 5 

vears. average 40 inches; at 6 years, average 

43 inches [I. 382]. 
Respiration: 20 to 25 [I. 283]. 
Pulse: 90 to 110 [I. 283]. 
Dentition: second dentition begins at 6th year 

with first four molars [I. 183, 217, 299, 341- 

343]. 



PHYSICAL SUGGESTIONS 

Sleep: 13 hours, and rest from 1 to 3 hours [I. 44, 
46, 48, 271, 272, 276]. 

Foods for body-building, and special attention to 
nutrition needed from age of five [I. 57-66; 
223-238]. 

Physical examination and vaccination before en- 
tering school, with special care of teeth [I. 
337-342]. 

Guard against fatigue and contagion [»I. 288- 
330]. 

Without neglecting the senses [II. 36, 37], the 
strong constructive instinct and motor inter- 
ests are to be encouraged through tools and 
material [II. 253, 254]. 

Train the child to dress himself, Sth or 6th year. 

Physical exercises outdoors, running, jumping and 
ball-plav to be encouraged [II. 237, 241-243, 
245-247, 261]. 



258 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 
[II. 14-23] 

Instincts: curiosity shows itself by perpetual 
questioning, also by building [II. 245-247] 
and taking things to pieces; play runs out in 
two directions: lively motion, such as running, 
jumping and rhythmic dancing, and also play 
that represents adult activities, with some 
slight interest in formal games; both play and 
curiosity lead to runnintj away [II, 55, 258- 
262], 

Emotions, upset by new school conditions, more 
changeable [II. 135-140]. 

Memory more clear, consecutive and voluntary, 
as power of attention improves [II. 93, 94]. 

Understanding, definite ideas about everything; 
new notions from school and playmates. 

Mental activities: imagination lively, builds a 
fairy world in play; love of listening to fairy 
tales; attempts to print and represent a little 
by drawings; interest in color, 4th year, yields 
to new interest in form of things, Sth or 6th 
year; interest in play or work is in the activ- 
ity itself rather than in the result, and so is 
not prolonged or continuous; all his activities 
(by the si.xth year) are affected by the fact 
that he now has a larger environment than 
his home [II. 121-123, 266, 267]. Quick, 
eager spontaneousness is his mental keynote. 



MENTAL SUGGESTIONS 
[II. 44-57, 257] 

For home occupation, give materials for weaving, 
molding, drawing: blocks, balls and things 
for playing house, store, railroad, etc.; plants; 
objects to stimulate collections; free play 
rather than games [II. 235, 236, 250, 251]. 

Use the best Montessori and kindergarten ideas 
[II. 44-54] to enrich his experience in every 
possible way. 

For home requirement: telling time, dressing, 
singing scale, counting up to 100, simple 
knitting, coarse sewing, helping about the 
house [II. 256, 257]. 

Home reading aloud [II. 230-233], singing [II. 
261, 292], memorizing [II. 87-90, 280-283]. 

Home nature study [II. 100, 101, 118]. 

Stories of fairies, animals and things near home 
[II. 270-277, 403-406]. 

Be a companion in the child's play, interests and 
school work [II. 42, 187]. 

Guard purity of speech [II. 83-86]. 

Give simple sex-information before entering kin- 
dergarten [I. 11-13, 361, 362, 374, 375], and 
refute fears and superstitions picked up in 
school [II. 68-70]. 



A CHART OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 

FOURTH TO SIXTH YEAR (From the Third to the Sixth Birthday) 

Tlicsc rcfcKiiccs suggest liclpfid explanatory passages in "The Child Welfare Manual" 

MORAL DEVELOPMENT 



SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

Imaginary companions common in 4th year [II. 
125, 126]. 

The child now enjoys play with other children 
and with pets. 

Still selfish and self-assertive. 

In general, the individual stage. 



SOCIAL SUGGESTIONS 

Supervise companionships and play, to supply in- 
itiative and prevent quarreling [II. 146-149]. 

Do not give too much responsibility for care lest 
pets suflfer [II. 262-265]. 

Insist on responsibility for orderliness and special 
assigned tasks to teach partnership in home 
relations [I. 81-83; II. 249, 250]. 

Insist on acts of cheerfulness, patience, and polite- 
ness. They tend to build the virtues of which 
they are the symbols [II. 457-459], and they 
are the basis of all his future social life. 

Social feeling may be stimulated through appro- 
priate stories [I. 73-75; II. 251-256, 270-275], 
and dramatizing such stories together [ll. 

260, 266-270]. 

Give confidential companionship to the child, 
especially at bedtime and when he craves 
sympathy [I. 172-175]. 

Singing in the home is one of the best ways to 
develop the social life of the household [II. 

261, 291]. 



At about 5th year strong independence, some- 
times leading to revolt against authority [II. 
55, 218, 219]. 

Imagination, leading to fear, also develops capac- 
ity of trust [IL 123-126]. 

Confused through imaginativeness or fear [II. 
123-126]. 

First hero-worship (father, mother, policeman, 
etc.) appears [II. 201, 411-415, 451, 452]. 



MORAL SUGGESTIONS 

[II. 390-397] 

Independence must not become disobedience at 
home or bullying away from home. Meet by 
interested activity. 

The child should be trained to see and express 
truth clearly and never be scared into lying 
[II. 127-132]. 

Teach: 

Truthfulness, by precept and example; 

Loyalty, through love [II. 43, 44]; 

Courage, by storv, example and commenda- 
tion [II. 161, 388] ; 

Self-confidence, through encouragement of 
effort [II. 139]; 

Self-control, bv phvsical discipline and play 
[L 332, 350-354; IL 406]; 

Caution, by explanation of the lessons of 
experience; 

Personal reserve, by instruction, and a certain 
amount of repression; 

Punctuality, by penalty for failure; 

Cherfulness, by example, interest, and love 
[L 104]. 

Teach the child to carry his trust of parental and 
other human strength over into trust in God 
[II. 409, 410, 435, 437-439, 454, 455]. 

Encourage original expressions of gratitude and 
trust in prayer. 

Utilize the admirable qualities in the child's he- 
roes as examples. Furnish others in stories, 
especially the Bible stories [II. 403-406]. 

Establish habit of attendance at Sunday-school 
about 5th year, and church about 6th year 
[II. 449-451]. 

Use his spontaneous feelings toward goodness in 
every possible way for kindly, generous ac- 
tivities. 



259 



WHAT AN AVERAGE CHILD MAY BE ABLE TO DO 
BY THE END OF THIS PERIOD* 



TAKEN LARGELY FROM DATA BY THE LATE 

NAOMI NORSWORTHY 

Note. — The words "he" and "his" wherever used in these lists generally apply to activities appro- 
priate to girls as well as boys, unless otherwise indicated. 



1. He can attend to and control his bodily 
functions. 

2. He can perform the simpler courtesies of 
good breeding. 

3. He can to some extent restrain the impulse 
to cry when disappointed or hurt, to kick and 
.shriek when angry, to handle what he knows 
to be another's property, and can stop sulks, 
crossness, and contrariness. 

4. He can obey. 

5. He can understand simple instructions and 
hold them in mind sufficiently well to carry them 
out. 

6. He can pick out a few colors and express 
a preference among them. 

7. He will have a vocabulary of from 2,000 



to 4.000 words. He will understand more words 
than he uses. 

8. Rote memory is good. 

9. He can build or alter simple forms for use 
in play. 

10. He can make a rude drawing and perhaps 
print a few words. 

11. He can tell a simple story, partly of his 
own. 

12. He can act out a simple story, and pursue 
an imaginative play for some time. 

13. He is in the midst of the "how" and "why" 
period. 

14. He is full of spontaneous feelings toward 
goodness, which may easily be turned into the 
channels of kindly, generous service of others. 



A 'ROUND-THE-YEAR PROGRAM t 

ARRANGED BY 

THE COMMITTEE ON CURRICULUM OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
KINDERGARTEN UNION 



General Outline for the Year 

September, October, November- 

1. Life III the Home. The family; care of the 
home: preparation of food for the family. 

2. Sources of Food. The garden and farm; 
the market, the peddler, the dairy; occupations 
related to the supply of food; direct attention to 
the food products, fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs, 
milk, bread, butter, and to some of the simpler 
proceses involved in food getting. 

3. Seasonal Activities and Interests. Preserv- 
ing and canning for Winter ; planting bulbs ; 



gathering flowers, leaves, berries, seeds, nuts, 
etc.; collecting caterpillars; preparation for and 
celebration of Thanksgiving. 

December 

Preparation for Christmas. "Santa Glaus ;" 
the toy-shop; making gifts; the Christinas festi- 
val and tree. 

January, February, March 

I. Life in the Community. Houses for differ- 
ent families; streets, walks, street lights; modes 
of transportation in the community; public build- 



* An excellent outline for the physical and mental examination of a child of this age, just entering school, is Riven 
in The Child Welfare Manual, vol I, pages 336-338. 

t As the mother reads the suggestions made by Mrs. Newell and all the other wise teachers for this period, she fee.s the 
need at once of org.inizing them into some sort of a curriculum, so that she may have a program and plans for every month 
of the school year. We have adopted for this purpose the epoch-making report made to the International Kindergarten Union 
by its Committee on Curriculum, which is likely to guide our best kindergartners for a number of years to come. 

A daily program is hardly practicable, because the conditions in each home vary, and it would hardly be wise, because 
if offered, it would tend to bind down both mother and child and exalt a system instead of the needs and impulses of 

260 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



261 



ings needed by the many families; various shops 
and stores; post-office; fire department; school; 
church. 

2. Seasonal Interests. Out - of - door play in 
snow and ice ; heating and lighting of homes and 
other buildings; celebration of St. Valentine's 
Day; recognition of Washington's Birthday; care 
of plants now grown from bulbs planted in the 
Autumn ; care of pet animals, fish, birds, etc. 

April, May, June 

1. Occupations Related to Clothing. Making 
clothing; buying material at store or shop. 

2. Seasonal Activities and Interests. Life in 
the park and playground; excursions to observe 
signs of Spring, budding of trees, birds return- 
ing, coming of wild flowers; out-of-door play 
with marbles, tops, etc.; gardening; raising 
chickens or doves; celebration of Easter; cele- 
bration of May Day. 

Explanation of Outline 

September, October, November 

I. Life in the Home. The necessary work in- 
volved in housekeeping, especially that related to 
the supply of food for the family, furnishes ex- 
cellent subject-matter for the Fall program. It 
is all very familiar; the activities involved are 
simple and objective, and they are intimately 
related to the welfare and happiness of the chil- 
dren themselves. (See: "Talking with and Help- 
ing Mother," page 228.) 

A few well-selected toys, such as a bed, a stove, 
a broom, a tub, and some dolls, will suggest the 
housekeeping plays. Large floor-blocks may be 
used to make more beds, stoves, ovens. Clay 
may be used for bread, cookies, cake, etc., to be 
baked. Older children may make bedding for 
their doll-beds. Paper napkins and doilies will 



be needed to carry on the dining-room plays. 
Designs developed from berry and seed-stringing 
described below are sometimes applied in decorat- 
ing the doilies. The art impulse may be con- 
served also by attention to the arrangement of 
table-furnishing and the effective placing of 
flowers on the table. ( See : "Building Plays," page 
187; "Making Cakes and Other Models," page 
189; "Playing in Sand," page 191; "More Build- 
ing Plays," page 212; "Hammer and Nails," page 
215; "Making Things Out of Paper," page 216; 
"Modeling," page 222 ; "Pictures and Painting," 
page 224; "Beginnings in Handwork," page 288; 
"Constructive Play," page 355.) 

In order to keep the child's interest and atten- 
tion centered on the household activities and to 
furnish motive for many of the plays and occupa- 
tions, a playhouse may be provided in one corner 
of the room by means of a screen. Here the 
toys and block constructions may be kept from 
day to day, additional furniture and equipment 
supplied as need arises, and the life of the family 
in the home, their work and their pleasures, 
dramatized fully and freely. 

The mother may suggest a real luncheon or 
tea-party which will necessitate a trip to the 
grocery-store, the dairy, or the bakery. A cereal 
or some other food easily prepared may be 
bought, cooked, and served by the child himself. 
(The Bookshelf, vol. IV, "Mother's Cooking- 
School.") 

A series of plays and occupations of this kind, 
developed largely by the child and supplemented 
by pictures, stories, and conversation, serves to 
bring isolated ideas, experiences, objects, and 
processes into their true relation in the child's 
thought, and to stimulate to further organization 
of experience through play. 

2. Sources of Food. The excursion to the 
store suggests the desirability of a play-store, and 



the child himself. The little study by Miss Beard, "Richard's Day," suggests how a mother may follow the suggestions of 
a child's own activities and use them for educational ends. 

It is not time yet for formal periods of school-discipline, but there may well be definite occasions each day for con- 
scious learning. Every little child feels proud to be big enough to play "school," but he should do this in a way to make 
him alwa-ys think of school as a privilege. 

The daily experiences of the children will include some interests, impulses to activity, and emotions, which, although 
not related to the series of topics which have been selected, should nevertheless be given opportunity for expression. .\ 
rainy day. with its interesting accompaniment of rubber boots, raincoat, and umbrella, might call for expression through 
dramatic play, drawing, or song, which would be much more significant on that day than anything relating to the larger 
unit of work or project which was being carried on. 

It is most wise to keep a simple record of each day's activities and interests, and to file these, thus connecting one with 
another, and using each day's successes and failures to help in planning new projects. The following is the form used at 
tlie kindergarten of the Horace Mann School; 

D.^Y'S RECORD 
1. Material presented 4. How the child responded to the day's plan 



2. How far the child is along in the use of it 5. Selection of response worth considering and using to- 

morrow 



3. Plan for the use of it to-day 6. Suggestion arising in this lesson for future work. 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



this may now become the next project.* It will 
call for much experimentation with building 
blocks and boards. It can be worked out on a 
small scale by the child and later reproduced 
with large building materials. To stock this 
store furnishes numerous problems for the child 
to solve, and affords him excellent experience in 
selecting and shaping materials to serve his play- 
purposes. (See: "Playing in Sand," page 191; 
"How the Child Plays During the Fifth Year," 
page 211; "Building Plays," page 212; "Begin- 
nings in Handwork," page 2S8 ; "Constructive 
Play," page 355. 

The extent to which garden and farm become 
centers of interest depends necessarily upon the 
child's experiences. A miniature sand-table farm, 
showing buildings, fields, farm animals, etc., is 
an interesting and valuable play-project for chil- 
dren who are familiar with farm life. (See: 
"Playing in Sand." page 191 ; "Outdoor Life, Pets, 
and Gardening," page 229.) 

Play with real fruit, grains, and vegetables in 
the grocery-store or in connection with prepar- 
ing and serving food in the home will give fn 
opportunity for as much emphasis upon the proc- 
ess of food-getting as is desirable. The making 
of butter is a process which even little children 
can carry on successfully, and they may help in 
making jelly. Both butter and jelly may be saved 
and used at the Thanksgiving festival. 

3. Seasonal Activities and Interests. Parallel 
with the interest in these domestic and industrial 
activities will be interest in the season and some 
of its characteristic aspects. Bulbs may be 
planted in the Fall for early Spring blossoming. 
Seeds, berries, and autumn leaves may be gath- 
ered, sorted, and made into chains and wreaths. 
As autumn flowers are brought in, the child may 
arrange and place them in the room. Interest 
in observing the caterpillar spin a cocoon will 
be stimulated by taking the child out to find cater- 
pillars and helping him to provide some means of 
keeping them. (See: "The Instinct for Collect- 
ing," page 197; "Nature Study," page 240; "Bet- 
ty's Nature Friends," page 391 ; "Collecting Nature 
Materials," page 295.) 

The program for the season culminates in the 
preparation for and celebration of Thanksgiving. 
The child had some share in preparing food for 
future use in the butter-making and preserving. 
He has seen fruits and vegetables in abundance 



• It matters little whether we talk ahoiit, sing about, or 
dramatize, the policeman in October or in May, the carpenter 
in January or in Tune, the birds in September or April, or 
whether we take these specific representations at all, so that 
we help the child through some representation to see how 
his great fundamental needs of food, shelter, clothing, rest, 
law, love, are met, that he may grow in relation to the social 
whole." — Edna Dean Baker. 



in the markets. He has gathered some vegeta- 
bles from his own garden. These direct experi- 
ences, enriched by pictures, conversation, song, 
and story, will help the child to some realization 
of the meaning of the harvest season. He may 
prepare for Thanksgiving Day by decorating the 
dining-room appropriately and beautifully. (See: 
"Festivals," page 245.) 

Children of kindergarten age can not under- 
stand the historical significance of this holiday; 
hence it is a mistake to give it to them. The 
social significance of the day, however, may be 
realized liy the child, through associating it with 
the harvest and the pleasure that comes from 
sharing good things with the family and friends. 
This will lay the foundation for the appreciation 
of the spiritual significance of the festival, which 
will come to the child at a later period in his 
development. 

Hallowe'en is a day for the child to enjoy with 
other children. It may be made the occasion 
for a party. The celebration should emphasize 
the wholesome, legitimate humor that is associ- 
ated with the Jack-o'-lantern and the antics of 
the elves and brownies. 

December 

Preparation for Christmas. The outline for 
December suggests that three weeks of tiiis month 
be devoted to work and play related to Christmas. 
The little child's associations with this day are 
in terms of Santa Claus and toys. The story, 
"The Night Before Christmas," recalls all the 
joys of the Christmas season. The child should 
be given full opportunity to 'reproduce parts ot 
the story through materials and in imitative and 
dramatic play. The making of a toyshop and 
toys will stimulate the child to his best efforts in 
construction and supply incentive for further dra- 
matic play. Songs and stories which interpret 
the activities in which the child is engaged, or 
the mood aroused by the experiences he is hav- 
ing, will enhance the value of the entire Christ- 
mas experience. The song, "Who Will Buy My 
Toys?" is an example of a play-activity in poetic 
form. "The Shoemaker and the Elves" is a 
story closely related to the Christmas experience, 
because it deals with the making of gifts and 
contains the element of surprise. The spiritual 
significance of the festival may be emphasized 
by telling the story of the First Christmas. 

After such happy experiences as these, the child 
will be ready and eager to plan and make gifts 
for his parents. This Christmas festival should 
be the most beautiful of the year. The work 
should be so planned that hurry and strain in 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



263 



connection with making gifts are avoided. All 
preparations should be accompanied with pleas- 
ure in doing and joy in anticipation. The gifts 
should be carefully wrapped and tied or sealed. 
(See: "Festivals," page 245.) 

January, February, March 

I. Life in the Cotmnunity. Occupations related 
to food, clothing, and shelter, represent both home 
and community activities in relation to each 
other; but the home-life supplies the background 
in each case, and the several neighborhood in- 
dustries become interesting in connection with 
some one or more heeds of the home and family. 
(See: "Building Plays," page 212; "Hammer and 
Nails," page 215; "Making Things Out of Paper," 
page 216; "Modeling," page 222; "Pictures and 
Painting," page 224; "Constructive Play," page 

355-) 

It is desirable, in addition to these, to empha- 
size the needs of and provision for the neighbor- 
hood or community as a whole. There are fam- 
ilies, represented by children themselves, living 
in their several homes; these homes are located 
on roads or streets; w'alks and street lights must 
be provided so that travel and transportation 
may be safe and comfortable. There are numer- 
ous stores and shops on the business street of 
the neighborhood which supply many of the needs 
of the community. Provision is made for the 
protection of the people by means of the fire 
department and the police service; and for com- 
munication through the work of the letter-car- 
riers and post-office. There is the school for all 
of the children; and the church attended by the 
different families. 

A miniature community as a project may be 
easily developed out of the building of individual 
houses on the same street or in the same neigh- 
borhood. These structures will be characteristic 
of the environment — single houses only, or single 
houses, blocks of houses, and apartment build- 
ings. As the houses are completed, other neces- 
sary buildings of the community suggest them- 
selves. The stores and shops of the miniature 
community may be distinguished from one an- 
other by their window displays. Sidewalks, street 
lights, mail-boxes, and vehicles of various sorts 
may be added as need for them is felt. In the 
early spring the playground and park may be- 
come additional projects especially interesting 
and significant as the days grow warmer. 

Associated with the construction are the plays 
in which the children carry out in imitative and 
imaginative form the various community activi- 
ties. They -play at shopping, visiting, going to 



school and church. They play postman, car 
driver, policeman, etc. They visit the fire de- 
partment and see the firemen and engines. Il- 
lustrative drawing and modeling are other forms 
of expression used to interpret these different 
interesting and important phases of community 
life. The play is simple and the products crude, 
but they represent a child's method of entering 
into the life of which he is a part and learning 
something of its interrelations and interdepen- 
dencies. 

These objective and relatively permanent rep- 
resentations of the objects and ideas involved in 
the subject-matter hold the children's interest and 
attention for several days or weeks. 

2. Seasonal Interests. At Christmas time the 
use of the holly, mistletoe, and evergreens will 
call attention to the trees which keep their leaves 
all Winter. 

In Winter, if environment favors, the children 
will make snowballs and snow-men. The melting 
of the snow-men will serve to show the change 
of- snow to water under the effect of warm sun- 
shine. 

During the short winter days attention should 
be directed to the moon and stars, while they are 
visible, before the children's bedtime; and verse 
and song expressive of childlike feelings and 
interest in these heavenly bodies may be used to 
deepen the children's pleasure in them. 

The bulbs planted in the Autumn may be 
brought from the cellar and kept where the child 
may watch them grow and give them the care 
they need. 

The planning and making of valentines will 
furnish good problems in construction and design, 
and this day, like Hallowe'en, may be used to 
further the development of social spirit. 

Washington's Birthday is a holiday which has 
interest and significance for the older children 
in the school and for the community in general. 
The younger children tend to reflect, without un- 
derstanding, a community interest of this kind. 
They are, obviously, too young to appreciate the 
service of Washington to his country; but they 
will be satisfied with the explanation that he was 
a great soldier and the first President of the 
United States. They may help to celebrate his 
birthday by making suitable room decorations and 
soldier caps for themselves, by carrying flags 
while marching to martial music, and by hearing 
and joining in the singing of our national songs. 
Thus will pleasurable and right associations be 
made by them with the name of George Wash- 
ington, a national figure too great to be intro- 
duced to children through anything so trivial as 
the commonly used cherry-tree stofy. 



264 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



April. May, June 

1. The Need and Supply of Clothing. As oc- 
cupations related to the supply of food may be 
initiated through suggestive toys, so interest in 
clothing and occupations necessary to supply it 
may be approached through dolls and doll plays. 
Dolls which need garments made of actual cloth 
may be used, or paper dolls, or perhaps both 
kinds ; in any case the problem is one which will 
make a strong appeal to the children. ( See : "Mak- 
ing Doll-Furniture," page 232 ; "Weaving," page 
-'36; "Making Doll-Dresses," page 239; also in 
the Boys and Girls Bookshelf, vol. IV, page 
75, "The Little Mother's Work-Basket.") 

Material is the first necessity. The children 
may go to purchase it themselves. The planning 
and making of the garments will follow. This 
work will suggest the stores and shops again as 
places where not only materials, but also ready- 
made garments, may be secured. It may involve 
the dry-goods store, or the department store, ac- 
cording to the circumstances and environment. 

The plays and occupations will bring the chil- 
dren in contact with a variety of textile mate- 
rials. All occupations related to clothing take on 
an added significance in connection with the out- 
of-door life of the season. When the subject is 
a part of the spring program, the need of cotton 
clothing, shade hats, sunbonnets, and parasols may 
be emphasized. If it is included in the winter 
work, heavy coats, caps, mittens, rubbers, and leg- 
gings are necessaries to be provided. In either 
case, the merchant as a factor in supplying human 
needs becomes a person of special interest. 

2. Seasonal Activities and Interests. During 
the late Spring and early Summer, when the chil- 
dren can be out of doors much more than at any 
other time of the year, the central interest of the 
program may be selected from the activities and 
interests relating directly to the season of the 
year. (See: "Nature Study," page 240; "An In- 
troduction to Nature Study," page 384; "Betty's 
Nature Friends," page 391.) 

The playgrounds and parks are being made 
ready for summer use. As suggested elsewhere, 
the representation of a playground or park in 
miniature may be the final project of the work 
growing out of the interests in community life. 

In the early Spring, the effect of sunshine on 
seeds and bulbs planted in the window-boxes will 
have been noted. Excursions will be planned in 
order that the children may discover signs of 
new life as they appear in the grass, leaf buds, 
and early wildflowers. Interest in these may be 
stimulated through drawing and paper cutting as 
well as through language and poetry. 



Observation of returning birds should be 
encouraged and an effort made through pictures, 
conversation, drawing, etc., to help children to 
recognize readily a few birds common to tlie 
locality. The child may also make a bath for birds 
in the yard and keep it filled with water. 

In addition to these experiences incidental to 
the objects and phenomena of Nature, the activ- 
ities of gardening and the care of animals should 
be carried on. Children of kindergarten age are 
too young to carry gardening activities very far. 
They should, however, have the opportunity to 
plant some flower and vegetable seeds which will 
mature quickly. 

Seeds of various kinds planted in pots, bowls, or 
boxes, made or decorated by the children, will 
help to keep the interest active through appeal 
to the ownership instinct. Furthermore, the plant 
growing in the little pot on the window-sill is 
much more in evidence than the plants growing 
in the relatively remote garden. It is worth while, 
therefore, to plant seeds in the Spring and bulbs 
in the Autumn, both indoors and out. Lettuce and 
radishes planted early in May will be ready to 
harvest by the time school closes in June. The 
seeds of these and other plants may be gathered 
in the early Autumn. 

Animals which are interesting in their habits 
and which may be easily cared for are goldfish, 
canary birds, ring doves, rabbits, and a hen and 
chicks. In a number of instances kindergartners 
have succeeded in raising a brood of little downy 
chicks. 

Opportunity thus to become intimately ac- 
quainted with two or three types of animal life 
is far more important for the children than 
merely to be introduced to a larger number and 
variety of animals, although the aspect of num- 
ber and variety need not be neglected. 

The festival days of the season, Easter and 
May Day, should be recognized in appropriate 
fashion. Since Easter comes at the beginning 
of Spring, the associations with it should be those 
of new life. The season is one of promise. 

May Day, like St. Valentine's Day, is a time 
for surprises. It should be so celebrated as to 
give pleasure to friends and neighbors. 

The old custom of hanging baskets of flowers 
on neighbors' doors is a charming one to per- 
petuate. 

Method 

In general, the method of using subject-matter 
selected from home and community life, or from 
Nature study, involves the following: 

I. Recall of familiar experience through real 
objects, toy representations, pictures, conversa- 
tion, or through some closely related experience. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



265 



2. Extension or interpretation throug-h excur- 
sions, or by means of objects or processes in the 
home, etc. 

3. Interpretation and organization through one 
or more of the several avenues of expression or 
forms of play. The third step usually involves 
for the child a problem which he will be inter- 
ested in solving. For example, suppose the chil- 
dren have been shaping cookies of clay. The 
question of baking may present itself, and they 
then realize that baking tins and ovens are 
needed. The first problem for the child may be, 
"How can I change this piece of paper into a 
pan to hold my cookies?" The next problem 
follows, "How can I make an oven in which to 
bake this pan of cookies?" 

Attainments 

The attainments are realized so largely in 
terms of the various activities of the program, 
handwork, language, drawing, excursions, and 
so on, that it is difficult to formulate them apart 
from these several activities except in very gen- 
eral terms. A year's work as outlined below 
should result in the following values for the 
children : 

I. Attitudes, Interests, Tastes. A broader and 
more intelligent interest in those phases of social 
and natural environment included. 

An eager, receptive attitude toward new expe- 
rience resulting in the development of new in- 
terests. 



2. Habits, Skill. Increased ability to relate and 
organize experience. 

Increased ability to adjust oneself to social 
situations. 

Increased power of attention shown in ability 
to concentrate on a series of related ideas and 
activities. 

Increased power to think and work indepen- 
dently. 

3. Knowledge, Informcfion. A considerable 
fund of valuable information concerning the 
home and neighborhood activities and natural 
objects and phenomena to which attention has 
been drawn. 

Some realization of the social relationships and 
moral values involved in certain of these activi- 
ties. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BoBBiTT, Fr.\xklix. The curriculum. Houghton 
Mifflin Company, Boston. 

Course in community life, history, and civics. Uni- 
versity Elementary School. University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago. 

Dewey, John. Froebel's educational principles. In 
his School and Society, rev. ed. University of Chi- 
cago Press, Chicago. 

Martin, Katherine. The kindergarten. In Public 
School Methods. The Methods Company, Chicago. 

MrLLER, Irving E. Education for the needs of life. 
The Macmillan Company, New York. 

Palmer. Luella A. Some reconstructive movements 
within the kindergarten. Psychological Clinic, 
Vol. VII. June, 1913. 



Wee Grace, just opposite Nelson, is busily \vTiting answers 
to a column of examples. 4-t-2=6, 3 — 3^0. 7 — 2=? Ah! 
that is a puzzler! The bro%vn head is shaking sadly. The 
brown eyes gaze steadily at the hard problem. The other 
children hand in their work. Grace is not ready. Recess 
comes. Still she sits there. At last the teacher goes to her 
and says, "Let me help you, Gracie." The child lifts her 
flushed face and answers bravely, "Mamma tells me to try my 
best before I let anyone help me. I think I can do it pretty 
soon, thank you." 

It is a small incident, yet it speaks volumes for the home 
influence exerted upon that child, and when the right answer 
is obtained, the teacher, if her insight is keen, will reahze 
a little of the sj-mpathetic admiration that will thriU the 
mother heart when the story is related to her. 

— Angelina W. Wray. 



"In her fine contribution to kindergarten literature, "The 
Kindergarten in American Education," Miss Nina Vande- 
walker gives these four principles which the psychologist of 
to-day approves, not for the kindergarten alone, but for all 
education: first, education is a process of development rather 
than a process of instruction. The child is not an empty 
vessel to be filled, but a growing organism with unfolding 
power of body, mind, and spirit. Second, play and not work 
in the sense of drudgery is the natural means of development 
during the early years. Third, that the child's creative activ- 
ity must be the main factor in his education. He "learns by 
doing" rather than by memorizing facts. Fourth, that his 
present interests and needs rather than the demands of the 
future should determine the material and the method to be 
employed. Instead of selecting subject-matter which as an 
adult he might understand and use, we select that which he 
can know, enjoy, and use in his play-projects now; for he 
who lives the life of the present day of his development most 
fully will be most ready for to-morrow." 

— Edna Dean Baker. 



mmmz 



m 



WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE THIRD 
TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



RICHARD'S DAY* 

A REAL DAY OF A REAL BOY, AGED FIVE, AND LIVIXG IN THE COUNTRY 



FREDERICA BEARD 

Note. — This little observation is worth the whole of some volumes of child study. It shows how 
the mother might have taken advantage of the impulses named in the second column in so many of 
the ways Mrs. Newell and others suggest, and helped him carry them just a step farther until they 
really meant something toward his development. 

Trv making such notes of your own child for to-day, and then to-morrow apply them in your com- 
panionship with him. 



Time 
7:00 A.M. 

After 
Breakfast 



8 :45 A.M 


9:15 A.M 


10:15 A.M 


11:00 A.M 


12:00 M. 


After 
Dinner 


4:00 P.M 


After 
Supper 



Events t 
Got up singing and continued to sing 
while he dressed himself. 

He and Sister Barbara (aged three) 
played with large "paper dolls" 
(really cardboard, of baby size, with 
clothes to put on and off). 



Went to woods to play in "camp" 
that Father made for him out of 
pine boughs. 

Returned for Barbara. 

Brought Barbara home from "camp." 
took his cart and went to pine grove 
for chips for kindling. 

Went with Grandma "down street" to 
get potatoes. 

Made mud-pies. 

Playing in barn with neighbor. More 
playing with cart and in mud. 

Had to stay on couch because of quar- 
reling. 

Played "bomb," "pendulum" and 
"fish" with rope tied to soft ball. 

Undressed himself; teased Grandma 
to read a story, which she did. 
When in bed he and Barbara talked 
for "one solid hour." 



Comments 

(a) Joyous expression. 

(b) Doing for himself. 

(a) Desire to "live over" life at home. 

(6) Boy cares for dolls (except when ridiculed, in 
this case by cousin whose parents have incul- 
cated the notion of unmanliness). 

(f) Parental instinct as true in boys as girls if not 
crushed out. 

(o) Desire to represent home life on simpler scale 

than house offers. 
(6) Interest in nature. 

(c) Interest in construction (just beginning). 

Desire for companionship. 

Play for a purpose, just showing itself at five years. 
(Work is anything done for a result: here is 
a mixture: the doing for the fun of it — play; 
the doing for what comes from it — work.) 

Same as above (chips for kindling; going for po- 
tatoes), with the interest of going somewhere 
with someone. 

Easy medium for representation and construction. 

Repetition. 

(fl) Selfishly overriding Sister, teasing, etc. 
(6) Imitating: representing things of motion (ac- 
tion), 
(f) Imagination. 

(a) Eager for story. 

(6) Eager for expression. 



* From "The Beginner's Worker and Work,'* by Frederica Beard, published by the Abingdon Press, New York, 
by permission of the author and publisher. 

t Comment of Mother: "I have not told him to do a thing; we never have time to silperintend his play." 



Used 



K..\ 



267 



THE FIFTH YEAR 

BY 

MARY L. READ 



During this year Mother often wonders why 
Jimmie, who has been so docile before, is becom- 
ing so disobedient and impudent, and why Katie, 
who has been so eager to follow around and 
"'help Mother," no longer wants to dust the chairs 
or put away the silver, but gets "tired of work- 
ing"; and why Henry, who hitherto has been 
3greeable with his toys and playmates, is now 
so quarrelsome and teasing. 

The explanation is practically the same for all 
of these manifestations. Jimmie and Katie and 
Henry, and any other of the normal four-year- 
olds, is developing his own personality and be- 
coming more conscious of himself. He has more 
of a mind of his own, and it is as natural for 
him to express this as it is for a spring of water 
to bubble up through the ground, breaking 
through the impediments that would hold it down. 

This force of personality, initiative, self-con- 
fidence, dauntlessness, is a very precious posses- 
sion. It is a mainspring of democracy and an 
essential for leadership. The wise man who finds 
a spring of fresh water on his lands does not at- 
tempt to repress it by covering it over with a 
heavy plank. Neither does he leave it to seep 
through the ground and make bogs. He brings 
some stones, so it will collect into a useful and 
beautiful pool, or he pipes it into the house, so 
that it may be utilized for the benefit of all the 
family. Tlie wise parent heeds this parable of 
Nature, and neither attempts to crush out this 
developing sense of personality by tyranny and 
lack of sympathy, nor does he let it run riot 
into disobedience, impertinence, rudeness, quar- 
relsomeness. 

How to Train Personality 

The wise parent guards, leads, and directs this 
developing force into constructive social expres- 
sion, n the child were an idiot he would never 
develop this sense of personality. If he were 
feeble-minded or a neurasthenic he might need 
special stern measures or institutional treatment. 
But being a healthy, normal child, he has now 
other developing traits that can also be utilized 
— the "stones," or "pipes," as it were, for direct- 
ing this force. 

These other and supplementary traits will vary 
somewhat with each child, but most children at 
this age have also a keen sense of humor — espe- 



cially of the grotesque — a strong imitative ten- 
dency and a great desire to be like grown-ups. 
They are able to reason with considerable clear- 
ness, and they are affectionate. 

The mother and father, on their part, must 
exercise great control of temper, must keep in 
close touch with the child's feelings and his way 
of looking at life and experience, must use all 
their own sense of humor, common sense, and far- 
sightedness, and keep a firm, kindly control. 

Does this appear to call for a grasp of com- 
plex details, a high degree of personality and a 
great deal of personal judgment instead of offer- 
ing a simple, specific rule that can be applied in 
all cases? Even so. Child-training is indeed a 
complex process, and for its efficient practice 
calls for fine discrimination, well-trained judg- 
ment, ready wit, scientific knowledge, poised per- 
sonality. 

The sooner we all appreciate this the sooner 
s'hall we abandon the present irrational policy of 
expecting parents somehow to be endowed from 
heaven with miraculous gifts of these qualifica- 
tions when a child is born ; the sooner shall we 
appreciate the absurd delusion that "anybody can 
mind the kid. because he is so little and doesn't 
know anything." And then we shall shake off 
our inertia and begin to train young people for 
these responsibilities as thoroughly and intelli- 
gently as for any other responsible and profes- 
sional work. 

Utilizing Humor 

To consider the cases of Jimmie, Katie, and 
Henry: Suppose Jimmie has a keen sense of 
humor. With his new sense of personality added 
to this, he will naturally make a great game — 
and to him a most amusing one — of seeing how 
much his elders can be made to stand for by way 
of inattention, disobedience, and impudence, and 
how much he can rufile their tempers. His 
parents, if wise, will not "ruffle." Instead they 
will play the game his way. 

For instance, there is no fun crawling under 
the bed, and thus trying to escape being washed 
for supper, if your mother will not chase you 
and try to reach you with a long stick, nor get 
cross and "rave" because you don't come out. 
If she just lets you alone, and presently when 
you feel inside you that a bowl of cereal and milk 



268 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



269 



and baked apple are essential to your comfort 
and happiness, and you crawl out to get them — 
and find everything put away, and Mother just 
smilingly says suppertime is past and that you 
can have some plain bread and water if you are 
hungry, and all your importunings bring nothing 
else — if this is the way you are treated, there 
is no fun in it. 

Henry, for his part, has not such a rippling 
sense of humor, but is full of "make-believe." 
According to the dramatic parts he is now inter- 
ested in, he will respond heartily to suggestion, 
where he would naturally rebel at being ordered 
about. When he is galloping around with his 
make-believe horse and the time has arrived to 
get washed for supper, he will quickly meet the 
suggestion that "supper is ready for the pony," 
and will come prancing and neighing to "have 
his harness off"; he will come to the "stable" 
for his "oats and hay." 

Using Imagination 

Katie is more prosaic and mature in her part, 
but dramatic and imitative. She doesn't want to 
stop her doll-play and get ready for supper either, 
but the suggestion that "Mrs. White and her 
child are coming to have supper with us" falls 
upon listening ears, and "Mrs. White" comes glee- 
fully and shows her "child" how to have her face 
and hands washed for supper ; she graciously 
partakes of her evening meal, instead of coming 
reluctantly and sulkily. 

Obedience must be required. The child must 
learn that the parent's word is serious and that 
there are social and rational limitations to the 
expression of his personality; but it is not neces- 
sary that he should be made constantly, con- 
sciously — and therefore painfully — aware of 
those limitations. 

It will require weeks, possibly months, during 
this year for the child to learn that Mother and 
Father mean exactly what they say ; that atten- 
tion is to be given the first time- the child is 
spoken to, and that no exception to obedience is 
permitted. If a parent is inconsistent, at some 
times requiring obedience and at other times let- 
ting the matter go by default, then the child is 
never certain how far he may go, and there is 
constant rebellion, friction, and unhappiness. 

Impertinence may develop first in a playful 
way, when the child is cautiously feeling how 
far his elders will permit him to go in slapping, 
pinching, biting, in calling them disrespectful 
names or making disrespectful remarks. The 
self-respecting parent will not allow himself or 
herself to be called "a mean old thing," or be 
told to "shut up," or "I'll give you a thrashing," 



even in play; nor will he be drawn into quibbling 
and arguing with the child. At this age the child 
respects only reasonable and just authority that 
allows no arguing, firmness that is also just, and 
control of temper that neither explodes nor nags 
at him. 

Using Tools 

Much of this developing personality and energy 
can be utilized constructively in play. From now 
on there is need of plenty of space and facilities 
to run, shout, climb, jump, roll, turn somersaults, 
throw balls and stones. Nature has given the 
child — let us hope — a superabundance of physical 
vitality and energy, in order that through his 
inner impetus he shall use his muscles and lungs, 
and thereby develop both his body and his mind. 

If the child, with all this dynamic energy, be 
kept indoors, in crowded quarters, without space, 
freedom, liberty, and the apparatus for such ex- 
ercise, not only is his natural physical and mental 
development being handicapped and retarded, but 
there is bound to be many an explosion, many a 
spontaneous combustion of vital spirits, constant 
frictions. Moreover, the child is frequently, 
under such impossible conditions, accused of 
being "naughty," "bad." "wicked," "unmanage- 
able," when he is perfectly good and normal, and 
these epithets really belong to his restricted, un- 
natural, abnormal environment. 

A box of carefully selected tools and materials 
for handiwork is needed now. Nothing should 
be included that taxes the eyes and the fingers. 
All fine work, such as sewing with a cambric 
needle, stringing small beads, straws, papers, 
seeds, berries, popcorn, following small dots or 
fine lines, is too great a strain on the eyes and 
the nerves, which need to be conserved and 
strengthened for the heavy demands that civiliza- 
tion will put upon them in the oncoming years. 
Such fine work must wait until the eyes and fin- 
gers and nerves are ready, at si-x or seven or 
eight years of age. 

The large blocks, in a variety of shapes, and 
the sand-box are the most plastic and valuable 
materials, and they are naturally put to constant 
use now in giving definiteness to the child's ideas 
and his expression of his ideas. With the car- 
pentry tools he can begin fashioning simple doll 
furniture and toys, but his interest is still chiefly 
in experimenting with the tools, and he is not 
ready for careful workmanship. 

What Dawdling Means 

One of the usual characteristics of this year 
is dawdling, day-dreaming, being dilatory. Some- 
times this is- because the child is carrying on an 



2/0 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



imaginative play in his own mind, and he has not 
yet learned how to think his own thoughts and 
to use his hands at the same time. Sometimes 
it is simply that he is not thinking at all. 

Part of this dawdling must be expected, over- 
looked, or allowed for. Persistent effort, how- 
ever, should be made to overcome this in such 
necessary processes as dressing, washing, eating. 
Sometimes occasion demands that the dressing 
process, for instance, must be finished in a few 
minutes, and then 'the mother must put on the 
child's clothes and wash his face and hands for 
him. 

There is the temptation to do this work for him 
all the time because he takes so long, but this 
temptation must yield, at least for some of these 
processes every day, to the greater need of his 
training in self-reliance, responsibility," attention 
to what he is doing, manual ability. 

The nervous mother must learn to control her 
impatience and refrain from "Hurry up," "Be 
quick, now," and similar nagging bromides as 
conscientiously as she would refrain from swear 
words. The nervous child will be made irritable 
and nervous by such nagging, and the stolid child 
will soon become so accustomed to it that he 
will pay no attention. 

Part of the preparation of the child for his con- 
centrated attention on these activities, when he 
comes to do them himself, is to keep his attention 
on them at this time when the mother is doing 
them for him. In dressing, for example, as each 
garment is put on, she can talk of it: "Here 
comes the petticoat," "Now we put the dress on," 
"Here goes the stocking on the left foot," "On 
goes the right shoe." Little games can then be 
invented to "run a race" with Mother while she 
is dressing, or to see which child will be dressed 
first, or to be all dressed before the big hand on 
the clock is at half-past seven, or to surprise 
Father by being dressed and hiding behind his 
chair before he comes in for breakfast. 

Children's undergarments and their every-day 
clothes should be made to fasten in front or on 
the shoulder, with easily working buttonholes and 
bone buttons of moderate size. By sewing but- 
tons of different sizes on a strip of cloth and 
making buttonholes to match, a mother can soon 
find out experimentally which size the child can 
do with least difficulty, and can use that on his 
clothing. The large size snap-fasteners are even 
easier than buttons. More than one ingenious 
mother has thought to train the little fingers for 
these processes by cutting the strip of buttons 
and buttonholes of a convenient size from an old 
garment and putting this with the child's play- 
things, or hanging it by a gay ribbon around 



his neck, where he can experiment with it inter- 
mittently. 

Physical Exercise for This Year 

All the sliding, plank-walking, jumping, and 
climbing and the apparatus for such play are to 
be provided this year. The trunk, back, and arm 
muscles are better developed for throwing now. 
A basket-ball should be provided for tossing to 
a partner and also for tossing into a "basket," 
which can easily be made from a barrel hoop 
or a piece of heavy wire, and some mosquito 
netting, fastened low enough on a wall so the 
child can toss the ball up into it, as in playing 
the game. Such ball play utilizes both sides of 
the body and all the trunk muscles. 

Small bags filled with sawdust are as much fun 
as bean-bags, and they do not hurt so badly if 
they happen to hit a child in the face, as often 
happens. 

Rhythm and Music 

If the rhythm and music previously suggested 
have been continued, the child should be able now 
to clap or march in time to marching rhythm. 
He should also be able to skip and to do some 
of the very simple little folk dances. It is not 
probable that he can yet carry a tune, but he 
loves to sing, and this is to be encouraged and 
developed, being very careful that it is done 
softly, never shouting nor screeching, which might 
seriously injure the vocal cords. Many of the 
Mother Goose songs have been set to music. 

The natural range of the child's voice at this 
age is about from middle D to upper D. A few 
minutes with the child at the piano, trying his 
range, will discover what his individual compass 
is. The songs taught him should then be chosen 
within this range. Many songs written for chil- 
dren are at fault in this respect. 

Pictures and Color 

Pictures have a very great attraction at this 
age, especially pictures of animals, children, 
ships, trains, industries, and funny pictures. 
There are many beautiful children's books and 
pictures produced by real artists, using the strong 
lines, vivid color, and spirit of fun that children 
of this age both love and need. 

The child's love of color, drawing, and painting 
becomes a great enthusiasm during this year, and 
should have ample means for expression. In- 
stead of a water-color box with a variety of 
colors, purchase a box containing only the three 
primary colors — red, blue, and yellow — and let 
him learn to combine these to make the others. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



271 



Good and Evil Imaginative Imitation 

The child has no standard of worth in the 
activities he shall imitate, but includes everything 
that comes within his observation. He will play 
drunken man, villain, funeral, as readily as 
wholesome parts. The problem is to supply him 
with a wide range of the latter, and if his atten- 
tion has been called to the former to divert his 
activity by positive suggestions of other things, 
letting him forget the unwholesome. In this con- 
nection thought must be given to military play. 

There is no getting away from the fact that 
soldier-play' cultivates in the child an innate ad- 
miration for militarism. Unfortunately the tragic 
phases are not presented to him — the physical tor- 
ture of the soldiers, the heartbreak of the mothers 



and wives, the destitution and sorrow of the or- 
phaned children. Of the brutality, the sordid- 
ness, the vandalism, the lust, the social chaos, the 
enmity, he could, of course, have no comprehen- 
sion. 

There are other examples of bravery, courage, 
steadfastness to duty, fine physique, to hold be- 
fore him as ideals. The life-savers on the shore, 
the firemen, policemen, engineers, divers, explor- 
ers, miners, are only a few examples of men 
whose work calls for these qualities, and at the 
same time is picturesque and constructive. He 
can beat his drum and march with them. He 
can even fight, if need be, but let it be with beasts 
and dragons, with personifications of spiritual 
evils and bad habits and faults, and never with his 
fellow-men. 



WHAT A CHILD IS LIKE THE SIXTH YEAR 



BY 



MARY L. READ 



This is the year when that metamorphosis oc- 
curs which gradually changes the babyish little 
ones into little men and women. They are be- 
coming every day less dependent, their pronun- 
ciation and use of the language is almost cor- 
rect; they are more self-reliant in thought, with 
a growing sense of individuality, more "mind of 
their own"; they are able to rim, dance, skip, hop 
— all complex accomplishments; many children 
can carry a tune ; they are eager to do things 
like grown-up people. 

Get the Best Out of His Dramatic Play 

One of the most marked characteristics of this 
year is the dramatic play. A large part of the 
child's time is spent in playing he is someone else 
— the fireman, a sailor, the grocery boy, Hia- 
watha, and a thousand other characters. He is 
likely to play he is any person that he has known 
about, either through seeing or hearing about 
them. Therein lies a great responsibility and 
opportunity for his parents. 

By providing examples of worthy characters 
in the stories they tell him or the persons whom 
they bring about him, or the neighborhood in 
which they decide to live, they are selecting the 
characters he will imitate and like which he will 
try to become. 

What shall be done when the child chooses an 
unworthy character, as, for instance, a drunken 



man? One way is to command him to stop and 
scold him for doing something wrong, as though 
he knew the degradation of such a character. 

Another way is to ignore this and let him play 
it, thereby letting him carry the impression that 
drunkenness is one of the natural and necessary 
experiences. An educational way is to start a 
more fascinating play so that he drops this, with- 
out comment for the time, and then, on some 
early occasion, to tell a story of the misfortunes 
in the drunkard's family, so that he will of him- 
self draw the conclusion that drunkenness is an 
evil and disgrace and that the drunken man is 
someone to be pitied, not laughed at. 

He will find it great fun to play "Eskimo," 
"Indian," "Greek," and a score of other nation- 
alities. There are so many good books now pub- 
lished giving accurate and concrete accounts of 
the ways of living in every country and age, that 
such parents as will devote themselves to this 
need have no difficulty in finding at the public 
libraries all they can possibly utilize, and much 
more, for such imitative play. (See volume V of 
the Boys and Girls Bookshelf.) 

If the child at this stage is getting true pic- 
tures of these occupations and peoples and char- 
acters, this play becomes of great educational 
value; he can not fill in the pictures out of his 
own imagination. Such play, too, gives him a 
large vision, a large sympathy toward all the peo- 



272 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



pies of the world, and lifts him forever out of a 
merely petty, selfish attitude toward others. 

What Handwork Is Suitable Now 

A second marked characteristic is the desire 
to make things with his hands. Such materials 
and tools as he uses should still be chiefly those 
requiring work of the large muscles, and little 
demand upon the fingers, the eyes, and the nerves. 
So a hammer and saw, and a coping saw are 
better for him than a needle; wood and card- 
board are better than fine straws, sticks, and 
papers. Carpentry, coping saw work, the making 
of playhouses out of wooden boxes, the making 
of wooden furniture for the dolls, the weaving of 
little rugs with inch-wide cloth strips, hold just 
as much enjoyment as 'trying to work with tooth- 
picks, peas, or paper strips, and they make none of 
the strain upon undeveloped muscles and nerves. 
Painting, which is one of the chief joys now, be- 
cause of the love of color, should be with a large 
brush. 

As much as possible, the house painter's brush 
should still be used, and painting done of play- 
houses, play furniture, and fences; for picture 
painting, not too fine a brush, and this set in a 
handle as big as a carpenter's pencil. All of the 
painting should be spontaneous and an expression 
of imagination, and there should be nothing that 
might cramp this, in the picture given for color- 
ing, or the criticisms of work. 

Much of the picture painting should be without 
a drawn figure. Such figures as are used should 
be with simple, firm outlines. Large-sized crayon 
and drawing pencils should also be used, and these 
put away whenever the child shows by his tight 
hold upon them that he is getting tense. 

Dealing with Imaginative Lying 

About this time many children, perhaps most 
of them, begin telling stories which many a 
parent condemns as "lies." The child's world at 
this age is a strange mixture of the "real" and 
the "unreal." His fairy-tales are as "real" to him 
as his bread-and-milk world — sometimes more so. 
He lives in a world of imagination, as the good 
poets and fiction writers do. Parents need to be 
very careful, therefore, to judge wisely, not to 
accuse the child of lying w^ien he had no inten- 
tion of deceiving but was simply telling some 
tale that was so vivid to his imagination that to 
him it was really true. 

If the child is getting too deep in this imagi- 
native world, there are subtle ways of letting him 
see that you know the game, too; for instance, 
after he has told a special "whopper," you may 
say, "I know some fairy tales, too," and proceed 



to tell one to match his; or a gentle "I guess you 
saw that in your dream." 

Definite Responsibilities Begin Now 

Responsibility is one of the necessary, though 
often hard, lessons of this time. It is so much 
easier to be waited upon than to do things for 
one's self, and we all dream of a fairyland where 
personal responsibility for the drudgery of every- 
day living no longer takes our time and energy 
from the "fun" we would like to have. But life 
on this earth is not without these responsibilities, 
and so the five-year-old must begin to learn to 
take his share. 

There should be some definite responsibilities 
for every day. Of course he should now be dress- 
ing himself, taking care of his own clothes as 
they are taken off, keeping his own toys in order, 
brushing up crumbs he spills on the floor. He 
should also have some other responsibilities in 
preparing his food, clearing up after meals, help- 
ing sometimes in little ways with the laundering 
of his clothes. This is necessary that he may 
appreciate what others are doing for him. 

There also should be some responsibilities for 
others, as well as for his own care. He can help 
bring in the wood, water the flowers, dust the 
dining-room, bring the milk, or do other little 
errands, at least for an hour at intervals during 
the day. Thus he will come to appreciate that 
he is a part of society, that each member of 
society must expect to take some share in work- 
ing for others. 

Care should be taken to respect his own inter- 
ests, and not to interrupt him needlessly in the 
midst of some absorbing game. Fortunate the 
child brought up in a family without servants ! 

Beginnings of Thrift 

Thrift is a fundamental virtue that should be- 
gin at this time, if not earlier. About the great- 
est temptation the child at this age has is, as soon 
as he gets them, to spend his pennies for temporary 
and self-indulgent things — chewing gum and lol- 
lipops, jimcracks and moving-picture shows. Not 
to mention the injury to his physical health from 
such indulgence in sweets, or the flicker of light, 
the poor ventilation, the excitement and the preco- 
cious mental consequences of such expenditures, 
there are the more fundamental consequences of 
lack of foresight and planning, the yielding to 
self-indulgence, the spendthrift habit. 

The child in the country, of course, has fewer 
temptations, yet he may be just as intemperate 
when opportunity offers. There is a negative 
way of controlling the pennies, either by not giving 
them or by not permitting the child to spend them 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



273 



in these ways. Neither of these, however, is 
educational, but merely an exercise of police- 
power. 

The educational way is to use "the expulsive 
power of a new affection." Make something else 
so much more interesting and worth while that 
he will prefer it to the lollypops and chewing 
gum. The child loves pictures and a drum, paints 
and tools; he would like to go on some little trip, 
or have a pair of red mittens. Keep these before 
his iipagination so vividly that they will shut out 
the poorer things. Provide a charming little 
bank; he can even make one himself and divide 
it into sections, so as to apportion and save his 
money for the different things he wants. 

Stories, Verse, and Pictures 

During this year myths and fairy-tales are 
food for his mind and soul. Mother Goose is 
beginning to be outgrown. The sense of humor 
and of the ludicrous is powerful. Instead of 
some of the present abominations in humorous 
pictures, provide some of the funny pictures of 
such masters in the art as Gelett Burgess, Peter 
Newell, and the picture books of the English 
artists — Caldecott, Leslie Brooke, and Edward 
Lear. The nonsense books of Carolyn Wells 
and Lewis Carroll are also good. 

Verbal memory is now strong, verily like a 
sponge. It will absorb whatever is provided, 
whether it be trash or of good quality. Rhyme 
and rhythm, especially, are learned rapidly and 
wellnigh permanently. A child will now absorb 
many pages of "Hiawatha" or other poems of 
Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Wordsworth, Ten- 
nyson, that are about subjects interesting to him. 
He can learn many hymns and Bible verses and 
proverbs that will be of comfort and guidance to 
him in later life, and which he but partially 
comprehends now. But beware of teaching mere 
words. 

First Interest in Group-Games 

Most children do not care much for group- 
games until near the end of this year. They like 
to play at throwing the ball, at jumping, running, 
or sense games. They have not enough self-con- 
trol to play well at hiding or finding. Here are 
some suggestions of sense games. Put six ob- 
jects on a tray and, while the child hides, take one 
object away; let him open his eyes and tell which 
one is missing. 



Let him be blindfolded when there are several 
persons in the room, and let one of these call his 
name; he is to guess by the voice which one 
called. Have several common objects which he 
has seen; blindfold his eyes and let him tell by 
feeling with his hands which object is given him. 
Strike a note on the piano and let him see if he 
can echo it; that is, sing the same note. If there 
are several children, let them see who can re- 
member the greatest number of things they have 
seen when they were out for a walk. 

Special Physical Examination Desirable 
Now 

Special observation should be kept of the teeth, 
the eyes, the spine, and the chest development. 
The first teeth must be kept from decaying, 
otherwise the system will be poisoned from the 
decaying matter and the second set will not be so 
strong. This means daily responsibility in his 
wielding of the toothbrush, a semi-yearly exami- 
nation by the dentist, and plenty of hard crusts 
which require work of the jaws. 

If the child frowns when looking at a picture, 
holds his work near his face, or complains of 
headaches, his eyes should be examined by a 
competent oculist, and, if necessary, glasses worn, 
and the use of the eyes in reading and writing 
postponed until the oculist says they are ready. 
The child who has the handwork that utilizes the 
large muscles, and that requires standing rather 
than sitting, is less liable to develop a curvature 
up to this time; especially if he also has swing- 
ing rings or a trapeze among his playtime ap- 
paratus. 

The child who is kept out of doors and active 
will develop a good chest and vital capacity with- 
out any further need for attention. It is the part 
of wisdom, however, to have a thorough physi- 
cal examination at the beginning of this year, by 
a physical director or a physician competent for 
such examinations, and to be assured that the 
child is developing as he should. 

If he is in first-class physical condition, half 
the troubles of "discipline" will be done away 
with. He may be full of mischief, but that is 
norm:.' and natural. He will not be "bad" until 
his physical condition- or an unnatural environ-- 
ment cramp and curtail his natural energies and 
normal instincts. 

With worthy examples in the people about him 
for his imitation, he should grow strong and fine 
in mind and soul as well as in body. 



THE DAWN OF INDEPENDENCE* 



ALMA S. SHERIDAN 



Allan arrived at Sunday-school quite out of 
breath after his long walk through the snow. He 
was struggling with his heavy coat when the 
teacher spied him and sent one of the other pu- 
pils to help him. But Allan refused all assist- 
ance. "I'll do it myself !" he said. 

Katharine and her mother were out for supper. 
The mother was somewhat nervous about her 
small daughter's table manners and was trying 
to help her in every possible way. This became 
very irksome to Katharine, and when the muf- 
fins were passed she hastily snatched one and 
screamed, "Let me butter it, let me butter it my 
own self!" 

James was out walking with his nurse. There 
were many slippery places on the sidewalk, and 
nurse took James by the hand and said, "Give 
me your hand, James, or you will fall." James 
quickly jerked his hand away. Though he walked 
very close to nurse and was evidently trying to 
be careful, he would not allow her to hold his 
hand. 

Do these stories remind j'ou of any instances 
from the lives of the children you know? 

Sunday-school was over. Above the noise and 
clatter of preparations for going home, a loud 
scream was heard. In an upper hallway, sur- 
rounded by a bewildered group of grown-ups, 
Rigby was lying in a heap on the floor. His face 
was buried in his hands. He would not speak to 
anyone : he would not allow anyone to touch him. 
When efforts to rouse him became unpleasant he 
screamed again. "What is the matter with Rig- 
by?" everyone was asking. But no one seemed 
to know. Just a few moments before he had 
been loitering in the hall when his nurse had 
reproved him, telling him to hurry up and put 
on his coat. Rigby declined. The nurse tried 
to force him. Rigby struggled. When she made 
further efforts he threw himself down in this 
way and refused to move or speak. 

Allan's independent determination not to ac- 
cept help from anyone, and Rigby's violent re- 
fusal to act on the nurse's suggestion about put- 
ting on his wraps, were indications that both of 
these children had reached a stage in child- 



development which may come any time after the 
third birthday.t 

At first he did not even know that his feet and 
ears and the other parts of his body were really a 
part of himself. He pulled and tugged at them 
just as he pulled at his playthings, and he often 
hurt himself. Then when he began to think, he 
did not know that everyone else did not share his 
thoughts. 

The "Value and Peril of Independence 

But now, since his experience has broadened, 
he becomes conscious of the difference between 
"mine" and "yours." In the occasional conflict of 
wills he discovers that he does not have to sub- 
mit to the will of his mother unless he wishes 
to do so. He learns that he possesses a person- 
ality of his own. When this feeling comes to 
a child, it shows itself in his conduct. It does 
not come to all children at the same time nor 
in the same degree. Thus the acts which tell 
us it is present may vary greatly. If the child 
is tired or ill, it is probable that he will be dis- 
agreeable about it. With some stronger person- 
alities the independent spirit will manifest itself 
in acts like Rigby's. 

This phase of the child's development presents 
a serious problem. Parents and teachers are apt 
to smile when it is simply a question of the child 
insisting on not accepting help. They are, how- 
ever, extremely puzzled and even vexed when the 
self-assertiveness assumes a more violent and 
unpleasant form. 

To deal helpfully with either case, a sympa- 
thetic understanding of what lies behind the act 
is necessary. This is the time for the develop- 
ment of individuality. Merely forcefully to re- 
press all efforts of self-assertiveness probably 
would cause the child to become weak-willed. On 
the other hand, there is grave danger of allow- 
ing the child whose sense of individuality has 
become very prominent to develop into a self- 
willed tyrant. If the child is shy and retiring, 
he needs to be encouraged in tiis desire to help 
himself. If he is extremely self-assertive, while 
no attempt should be made to "break his will," 



* From "Life in the Making," published by the Abingdon Press, Cincinnati. Used by permission of Wade Crawford 
Barclay, Editor. 

t With Mrs. Horn's child, the lirst evidences of this showed a year earlier, and this is not uncommon. 

274 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



275 



it is important that he be taught to respect the 
wishes of other people. 

Each Fresh Problem Suggests Its Question 

"Thomas, I can not understand what makes 
you ask so many questions. I wish you would 
run away and stop bothering me," says an 
exasperated mother who is quite too much 
absorbed in her household duties to think of the 
reason why the stars do not fall out of the sky. 
We sympathize with the mother, but what of 
Thomas? Is there nothing to be said in his 
behalf? Is it simply the desire to be a nuisance 
which prompts him to ask his never-ending ques- 
tions ? Of course not. Thomas's problems are 
very real. 

Thomas has just recently discovered that he 
and all the other members of his circle are indi- 
viduals, each with his own characteristics and 
each having a name. Now he wants to know the 
name of every person and thing which he en- 
counters. His widening experience soon tells 
him that most things have causes. He comes in 
from his play with his stocking torn. Immedi- 
ately he is asked, "How did you tear your stock- 
ing?" Mother finds the front porch covered 
with gravel, and again the question comes, "Who 
put the gravel on the front porch ?" So he be- 



gins to ask Iiis questions. Mother considers it 
perfectly reasonable for anyone to want to know 
how holes come in stockings, and how gravel 
gets on the porch, but when it comes to wanting 
to know how the stars are held in the sky she 
thinks it rather foolish. Perhaps the reason why 
she thinks Thomas's question unimportant is be- 
cause she long ago satisfied her curiosity about 
the stars. When the child is four and five years 
old, then is the time that he gets a simple philos- 
ophy which forms the basis of all his later 
thinking. 

Recall the situation he is facing. He has sud- 
denly wakened up in a perfectly amazing uni- 
verse. Everything is new and strange. He has 
just realized, too, his ability to take his place in 
that universe. Just as quickly as possible he 
wishes to share in the new order of things. So 
he asks his never-ending questions. He has 
problems which he must have solved. Pretty 
soon he will have what is, for him, a fairly sat- 
isfactory theory to which he may add later on. 
Then he will turn his thoughts to more practical 
problems. But just now he must not be scolded 
and sent away unanswered. Neither is it wise to 
tell him everything. He should be given a cer- 
tain amount of information and encouraged to 
think other things out for himself. 



"Life is so great a possession, so unending a procession 
of delightful possibilities, that each day ought to be a new 
gladness and every day a veritable holiday. For all the 
work that is worth doing, rightly handled, is the greatest 
fiui of all the fun there is. Only the work must be worthy, 
sturdy, honest toil that you can put your whole heart into 
and do just because you would rather do that particular 
thing than anything else in the world." 

— C. Hanford Henderson. 



Mabel had hcarrl, with poHtencss, six histories related 
in the gentle, monotonous voice with the accompanying re- 
minders, "You see, dear, how kind Emily was," or "From this 
you will notice little Emily's unfailing good temper," etc. 

At the end of the sixth narrative Mabel sighed and in- 
quired : 

'"Grandma, do you know many stories about little Em'ly?" 

"Yes, indeed," much flattered by the question, "I know a 
great many, my dear." 

"And is she as good every time as she has been in these 
six?" 

"Better, darling. Little Emily always did the best thing 
possible. You like her ever so much, don't you?" 

Mabel sighed again. "Grandma," she said gently, "you 
won't feel hurt if I tell you something, will you? I'm so 
sick and tired of little Em'ly that I don't know what to do!" 

— Angelina W. Wray. 



WHAT TO DO FROM THE THIRD TO 
THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



OUR HOME GYMNASIUM 



BY 



MRS. ELIZABETH HUBBARD BONSALL 



Nothing will develop children's muscles so well, 
bring color to their cheeks, and give them so 
much real fun, as an out-of-door gymnasium. 
Perhaps the word "gymnasium" may arouse in 
a timid mother visions of accidents and over- 
straining, but with simple apparatus on the grass, 
placed not more than a foot or two above the 
ground, there is no more danger for children 
than in ordinary playing. In fact, there is less, 
for with it they are learning to control their 
muscles. 

Starting with One Board 

We started our gymnasium last year with a 
smooth board and a couple of vi^ooden boxes. I 
brought the board from the cellar with the idea 
of having it for sliding, and of all its uses I 
think that one is the most popular. Our board 
is an ideal size, eight feet long and one foot 
wide, but a shorter and narrower one will do. 
Even the leaf of an old table will serve very well, 
provided it is smooth and there are no splinters 
or rough edges. .-Mso, one end of it can be placed 
upon the side edge of the steps, if it is not con- 
venient to use a box. 

The children are constantly inventing new 
ways of coasting down. First they just sat down 
and slid, then they went down sidewise, then on 
their stomachs, and finally standing up, with the 
board at a low angle. Of course you can't expect 
them to wear lace-trimmed or hand-emliroidercd 
underclothes while doing this, but it is surprising 
how long a pair of bloomers or overalls will keep 
respectable. 

Then we use our board as a seesaw, by put- 
ting it across a narrow box. As Betty is nearly 
five and Ann not quite two, I must carefully lial- 
ance it for them to start with, but after that 
they go up and down by themselves to their 



heart's content. I have them put their feet out 
straight on the board in front of them, so that 




it seems as if they are going higher, as they go 
all the way down to the ground. 
Betty herself discovered that, by having the 




box in the middle, she could stand on the center 
of the board, tipping it up and down, and keep- 
ing her own balance perfectly. Perhaps this 




training will be of service if she takes a trip 
overseas ! At any rate, she is gaining in ability 
to keep her balance in precarious circumstances. 



277 



378 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



We use the board as a springboard by having 
one end projecting about a foot over the edge of 
a low box. I am always careful to put my foot 




on the lower end of the board as Betty is about 
to jump, otherwise is might suddenly fly up. And 
then we make a lovely bridge by putting the 
board across two boxes, over which the children 
walk, jumping of¥ at the end. 

Betty can do nearly everything herself, and is 
gaining considerable skill. Little Ann wants to 
try everything that her 'big sister does, and it is 
astonishing how much she can do, especially if 
I hold her hand. 

Boxes and Sand 

As we had a quantity of stout wooden boxes 
in our cellar, I have been eager to make use of 
them. Other people who are not so fortunate 
can obtain all they want at any provision store. 
Turning them upside down, we place several of 
them in a row, fairly close together, and the chil- 
dren jump from one to the other, pretending they 
are crossing a brook on stepping-stones. Then 
by lying on their stomachs across individual 
boxes, they are learning the swimming strokes. 
I hope it will make real swimming easier for 
them next Summer, but at all events it is increas- 
ing their lung capacity. 

Another most important feature of our gym- 
nasium is our sand-box. Under a tree we have 
a good-sized one, made from two large soap- 
boxes, about five inches deep, nailed together 
with the inside partitions removed, making a 
large shallow box. A funnel, sifter, and a few 
spoons and jars are enough to keep a child happy 
for some time, and after more strenuous exercise 
forms a very acceptable means of comparative 
relaxation, and incidentally gives a busy mother 
an excellent opportunity to shell a few beans or 
pare potatoes. The children always find plenty 
to do in the sand of their own accord, but if you 
want to teach them geography, there is no better 
way than to make mountains, valleys, and islands. 
We also have a couple of smaller sand-boxes, 
each made from a single box, which can be 
moved about at will, in the sun or shade. During 



a continued rainy season, we even moved one of 
the boxes to the porch. 

For Vaulting and Jumping 

Another simple feature which we soon added 
was a planed 3 x 4-inch strip of lumber about 8 
feet long. After Betty learned to walk across 
the board bridge, we let her try this narrow strip 
stretched across from box to box, putting it 
iiigher as she became more confident. She has 
also learned to vault very nicely over it, placing 
her two hands close together, and lifting her feet 
over with a single jump. 

Notliing makes children more agile and graceful 
than jumping and running. For broad jumping 
only a piece of chalk or a stick is needed to mark 
the distance covered, but for high jumping I 
would suggest a simple device, similar to ours. 
I sawed a clothes-prop in two, and pointed the 
ends. Six inches above the ends I drove in a 
long row of small finishing nails, half an inch 
apart. We drive these sticks into the ground 
several feet apart, and measure the jumping ac- 



Nails jAparf'':: 




.--■^W^f- 



Mjif- ... 



curately by hanging a string across the nails 
weighed down at the ends by small stones tied 
to it. How hard we work to beat our own rec- 
ords ! Even if Betty catches her foot in the 
string there is no danger of falling, for the string 
simply yields. 

Another use for clothes-props, which is not 
quite so destructive of their original purpose, is 
for pole-vaulting. With a little run, and placing 
the stick firmly on the ground, it isn't long before 
children can lift themselves quite a distance in 
the air. The real fun begins when they try to 
go over obstacles, like small boxes, and find how 
high they can lift themselves. 

Gymnastics 

A short ladder adds no end of fun, and such 
a lot of exercises can be invented for it. If it 




OUR HOME GYMNASIUM 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



279 



is placed flat on the ground, even the baby can 
step safely from round to round, and if it is 
raised about three inches, a little excitement is 
added without making it dangerous. When it 
is placed against a tree or side of the house, with 
the upper end about four feet from the ground, 
Betty loves to climb up and drop through. It 
also makes a splendid seesaw when placed over 
a low box. If you haven't a short ladder, ask 
your husband to help you make one. Too often 
fathers leave the whole training of the children 
to the mothers, and the gymnasium gives a good 
opportunity for the whole family to be together. 
I wish we had a good place for a long rope 
to hang in our yard. I have screwed one up in 
the corner of a shed, but we can not swing on 
it very far without bumping into obstacles. Of 
course we have an ordinary swing with a little 
seat, but the hanging rope furnishes an excellent 
opportunity to strengthen the arm and leg mus- 
cles, as the children cling to it. Our rope can 
be used for climbing a short distance, and it 
won't be long before Betty will be able to "shinny" 
up to the top, if she keeps on as she has started. 

Where We Keep Things 

Maybe it sounds as if our lawn were littered 
from one end to the other with boxes and boards, 
but with the exception of the large sand-box and 



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swing, everything else can easily be put away, 
the sliding-board and long bars lying qn their 
sides against the house, and the boxes piled neatly 
in an inconspicuous corner. We usually take out 
only one or two things at a time, so that in a 
jiffy our yard is in order. 



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In addition to all the other advantages of an 
out-of-door gymnasium, it keeps the children per- 
fectly contented at home, without the temptation 



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to wander away. And as for stunts themselves, 
mother enjoys doing them every bit as much as 
the children, and she is sure her health is the 
better for it. 

Our Indoor Exercisers 

On rainy days, and on stormy days in Winter 
we take our exercise indoors with the windows 
open. Our first gymnastic device was a strong 
rope hung through two large screw-eyes fastened 
in the top of the doorway of Betty's bedroom. 
I intended it for an ordinary swing, and it is 
occasionally used as such, but by far its most 
popular use is pulling the ends down, making the 
two ropes parallel. Betty and even little Ann 
take hold of the rope with their hands, pulling 
their bodies from the ground and swinging back 
and forth. We always leave the rope in this 
position when we are through using it, as it does 
not hinder passing through the door. By pulling 



28o 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



one end of the rope completely up to the top, the 
other side makes a nice firm rope for climbing. 

We have recently put up a trapeze in Ann's 
doorway. The bar across is made from an old 
rake-handle, sawed about six inches narrower 
than the doorway, and hung by two strong ropes 
to screw-eyes in the top of the door-frame, just 
high enough so that Betty can reach it by stand- 
ing on her tiptoes. Swinging back and forth is 
in itself strenuous exercise, and I have been able 
already to note an increase in endurance. Betty 
hasn't yet mastered the art of pulling herself up 
and placing her chin on the bar, though Mother 
is glad to say that she herself can still do it. 
And even little Ann can hang all alone and 
swing, if someone lifts her up and takes her down 
when she is tired. There are lots of stunts that 
older children can do — sitting on the cross-piece, 
and skinning the cat, besides swinging in all sorts 
of ways. If you feel safer, you can place the 
small part of a mattress under the swing, and 
the children will enjoy it just as much. I pull 
our trapeze all the way up to the top when I am 
tlirough with it, to make a clear passage through 
the doorway, and to keep the children from using 
it when I am not with them. 

An old iron bed, if you are fortunate enough 
to have one, furnishes unlimited opportunity for 
exercise. Climbing over the foot, walking along 
the edge, and jumping up and down in the cen- 
ter, supply the basis for many variations which 
the children will invent. We have occasionally 
brought our sliding board in, and put it against 



the side of the bed, letting the children coast 
down. 

Our Setting-Up Exercises 

In general the children seem to get plenty of 
exercises from their own play with the apparatus 
we give them, but once in a while we have a set- 
ting-up drill, which they enjoy immensely. Here 
are just a few of the things we do: 

1. Raise arms slowly to horizontal position, 

breathing in. 
Hold breath, and strike chest lightly with 

closed fists. 
Let out breath and lower arms slowly. 

2. Hands on hips, take running steps without 

moving from position. 

3. Stand straight with heels together. 

Bend over and touch the floor without bend- 
ing the knees. 

4. Sit on the floor with feet straight ahead. 
Bend body forward as much as possible. 

Our Folk-Dances 

We started to learn a few folk-dances when 
Betty was two-and-a-half. At that time I was 
teaching them to the Camp-Fire Girls, who met 
at my home, and Betty joined right in vifith the 
rest. She loved them so much that I taught her 
several on her own account, simplifying them to 
meet our needs. The following are a few which 
can he learned by very young children. The 
music can be hummed or whistled. 



TAILOR'S DANCE 
(Adapted from Miss Elizabeth Burchenal) 



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Partners face each other. Feet together. Place 
left hand on hip, and raise right hand as high as 
shoulder, hand closed, except second and third 
fingers, which are stretched apart, pointing upward, 
representing scissors. 
1st measure, 1st beat. Place left foot sidewise, heel 

touching the ground, and toe in the air. 
1st measure, 2d beat. Left foot back to position. 

Close fingers. 



2d measure. Repeat. 

3d and 4th measures. Partners join both hands, ex- 
tended sidewise, and change places with four 
walking steps. 

5th to 8th measures. Repeat all, only placing right 
hand on hip and raising left hand. 

9th to 16th measures. All the couples join hands, 
and skip in a circle. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



28l 



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MORRIS DANCE (traditional) 



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Partners face each other, about four feet apart, 
arms straight above heads, waving handkerchief in 
each hand. 
1st measure. Hop on left foot, raising right foot 

about twelve inches from the ground, knee stiff. 
2d measure. Hop on right foot without moving 

forward, raising left foot twelve inches from 

the ground, knee stiff. 



Continue till 16th measure. 

16th to 31st measure. Skip in circle, waving hand- 
kerchiefs at height of shoulders. 

31st measure. Jump with both feet, handkerchiefs 
high in the air. 

32d measure. Jump with both feet, handkerchiefs 
brought down to side. 



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REAP THE FLAX 
(Adapted from Miss Elizabeth Burchenal) 



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Dancers stand in a line beside each other, hands 
on hips. (If more than five dancers, form two 
groups.) 

1st measure. All bend forward to pick up flax. 

2d measure. Raise it as far as waist. 

3d measure. Throw it over right shoulder. 

4th measure. Hands again on hips. 

5th to 8th measure. Repeat. 

9th to 16th measure. The one at the left end places 
hands on hips and leads. The rest place hands 
on shoulders of the one to the left and follow 
with running steps, three steps to a measure, 
around in a circle, ending in the same position 
at the 16th measure, and finishing by stamping 
twice. 



1st measure. Dancers bend forward to gather flax. 
2d measure. Return to standing position. 
3d measure. Reach flax forward, as if to put it 
around hackle. 

4th measure. Jerk it back from the hackle. 

9th to 16th measure. Spinning the flax. Dancers 
close in a circle, with right shoulder toward the 
center. Reach right arms toward center, join- 
ing thumbs, left hands on hips. Run on tiptoes 
in a circle, three steps to a measure, for four 
measures. Turn around quickly and join left 
thumbs, running in circle the opposite way, till 
last beat. Let go of thumbs and form original 
position. 



"The prime end of musical education is to train the sen- 
timents, to make chihlren feel nature, religion, country, home, 
duty, and all the rest, to guarantee sanity of heart, out of 
which are the issues of life." — G. Stanley Hall. 



GYMNASTIC PLAYS FOR THIS PERIOD 



BY 



MRS. HARRIET HICKOX HELLER 



The modern nursery must not only be a play- 
acting place, but it must partake largely of the 
nature of a gymnasium. Especially is this true 
of lusty children. The adventuresome little fel- 
low early likes to ride on Daddy's shoulder and 
will soon learn to walk on his own legs while 
holding fast to the firm hands. Many times he 
will do this, when at length with a little encour- 
agement he will turn himself completely over, 
doing a sort of "skin-the-cat" stunt, which I 
have known children to enjoy, playing with the 
father until at length they had grown too tall to 
make the run. It is quite an achievement when 
a chap learns to turn a somersault, a real somer- 
sault, going clear over and not sideways, and to 
be able to turn two or three somersaults in rapid 
succession is a worthy nursery achievement. 
The hand-spring belongs to the mysteries of 
later development. 

During the earlier part of the period that a 
child is interested in stunts, he enjoys lying flat 
on his back and letting his hands lie useless at 
his side, and then trying to raise himself to a 
sitting posture. It is an excellent exercise for 
certain muscles and affords amusement. From 
the same position it is well to lift his feet until 
the legs are in a vertical position. Many appar- 
ently strong children find difficulty in doing this 
until they have given it considerable practice. 
Then, of course, there is the ordinary little "set- 
ting up" exercise, which consists of standing in 
a military position; raising the hands high above 
the head and bringing the tips of the fingers down 
to touch the floor without bending the knees. 
These are in imitation of real stunts of larger 
people. The number of times a child can hop 
on one foot is interesting to him and may be 
increased by practice. The effort to be able to 
make as many hops with the left foot as with 
the right has some value. It is fun to march 
"following the leader," and doing all the queer 
things that he does. Even little children learn 
to skip to a rhythm, and the list of dance games 
which may be enjoyed in a spacious nursery is 
too long to be enumerated at this time. 

Suitable Games 

Variations of the game of "Hide and Seek," 
beginning with "Hide the Thimble," or, as the 



children say, "Hot Butter Beans," which con- 
sists of placing a small object in perfectly plain 
sight and guiding the searchers in their quest by 
the terms "Warm, warmer," and "Cold, colder," 
as they are near or far from the coveted object, 
are enjoyed by children of this age. The send- 
ing of a child from the room where a number 
of children are at play while the eyes of the 
rest are blindfolded is interesting to little folks. 
When they do not recall immediately the name 
of the child who has gone, they may be aided by 
the color of the hair or the eyes or some dis- 
tinguishing characteristic. The regular game of 
"Hide and Seek," with a goal or "home base," is 
appreciated if it is not made too difficult. Some 
introductory phases of "Blindman's Buff," if we 
may so refer to them, such as "Still pond, no 
more moving," where the child walks out with 
his eyes shut he comes in contact with the chil- 
dren who have become quiet at his command, 
and then without opening his eyes tells which one 
he has, gives much amusement. 

The ball is the great plaything of the world,' 
and some little ball-games may be used by folks 
under five. Drawing a chalk circle in the middle 
of the nursery, it is interesting to try to roll the 
ball so gently that it will still remain in this 
circle. It requires more skill than at first is 
apparent. Placing the waste-basket in the middle 
of the ring, children enjoy tossing the ball into 
the basket. If there are but two or three chil- 
dren, some little count or score will need to be 
kept to keep up the interest. If there are many, 
the mere clapping of the hands and giving of 
another turn will be sufficient. To place a block 
of wood in the middle of the circle and roll the 
ball, aiming to strike it, also forms a pretty good 
game. 

The following list of suggestions may be found 
helpful. They are recommended by Dr. Mon- 
tessori as suitable physical exercises for little 
children. 

Some Suggestions from Doctor Montessori 

I. Hang a heavy, swinging ball from the ceil- 
ing. Two children sit in their chairs opposite 
each other and push the ball back and forth. 
This is an e.xercise for strengthening the arms 
and spinal column. 



282 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



283 



2. We don't know why children are so amused 
by walking on a line, but we do know that it is 
good exercise. Draw a chalk line on the floor 
or extend a piece of white tape for ten or twelve 
feet for a child to walk on. This amusement is 
valuable in improving the carriage of the body. 

3. Later, walking upon the edge of a plank 
supported by standards, takes the place of walking 
on fences. The effort is a training in bodily 
balance and it also develops courage. Hold the 
child's hand at first if he is timid. 

4. Jumping is one of Nature's best exercises 
for developing strength in the legs and judgment 
in coordinating the movements. The eye, too. 
is trained in judging distances, and courage 
gradually develops. Guard the child at first, but 
let him begin to jump from one low step in this 
second year. Have a little flight of steps in the 
nursery, or use boxes of different heights. 

5. Lines may be painted on the floor to meas- 
ure child jumps. Jumping in and out of a circle 
is another game that children enjoy. Several 
circles, diminishing in size, are drawn inside of 
a large one. The child stands in the center and 
tries to see how far he can jump. Color in these 
circles adds to the child's pleasure. 

6. The swing is needed for training in rhyth- 
mical motion and courage. Dr. Montessori sug- 
gests a broad-seated swing to support the legs in 
an extended position, the feet to strike a wall. 
This strengthens a weak child's knees. 

7. Two small rope ladders are hung parallel 
to each other for the child to swing between. 
Another simple piece of apparatus is like a fence. 



A few parallel bars supported by uprights make 
such a fence, which gives the child opportunity 
to climb; also to walk sideways and even back- 
ward on the floor, is quite a feat in a child 
and is desirable for the exercise of certain mus- 
cles. Every mother knows how a child loves to 
play on a gate or a fence and to "saddle" along. 

8. The child's legs are much shorter in pro- 
portion to the length of his whole body than those 
of an adult, and for this reason the child tires 
of the erect position, is apt to throw himself 
upon the floor, kick out his legs, climb, and 
jump, making many movements to strengthen his 
legs without knowing why. 

9. Simple pieces of apparatus, such as the 
fence, the rope ladder, the swing, strengthen the 
hand in clasping and holding. Such movements 
must precede the finer movements necessary for 
writing and drawing and such handwork as sew- 
ing and cutting. The rhythmic games in march- 
ing, and the ball and bean-bags, kites, hoops and 
games of tag are valuable. 

10. We should not make young children con- 
scious of breathing exercises too soon, but they 
imitate deep breathing as a game. Deep breath- 
ing in the open air, accompanied by a few simple 
arm movements, will develop lung capacity. 

11. In addition to the apparatus named, one 
may have a tree for the little ones to climb. An 
ordinary short stepladder is useful. A horizontal 
bar may be fastened in the doorway. Place a 
low bar for jumping over, and raise it gradually. 
It may be at first supported on the lower rungs 
of two chairs. 



"Let us bring up our children simply, I had almost said 
rudely. Let us entice them to exercise that gives them endur- 
ance — even to privations. Let them belong to those who are 
better trained to fatigue and the earth for a bed than to the 
comforts of the table and couches of luxury. So we shall 
make men of them, independent and staunch, who may be 
counted on, who will not sell themselves for pottage, and who 
will have withal the faculty of being happy." 

— Charles Wagner. 



K.N.— 20 



LIVELY IMITATIVE PLAYS 



BY 

THE EDITORS 



Little children are not especially fond of formal 
gymnastics, but it takes only a little ingenuity 
to arrange imitative plays in such sequence as 
to exercise in turn the big body-muscles, the 
lungs, the heart, and the abdomen. Some of these 
have been suggested by Marion B. Newton. 

Mother Goose Exercises 

1. "Simple Simon." Two children walk quick- 
ly around the room, meeting, touching hands and 
passing on. At "the fair" Simple Simon sees — 

2. "Yankee Doodle." At this point the chil- 
dren pretend to ride on ponies, dancing to the 
time of the old rhyme. 

3. "Jack be Nimble." They jump over a low 
stick as this quatrain is repeated. 

4. "Old King Cole." They march in step to 
the rhyme and pretend to be fiddling. 

5. "Little Boy Blue." They take deep breaths 
and blow into a horn, and then lie down and 
pretend to sleep. 

Circus Plays 

1. Trained Dogs. They hop about on two feet, 
with knees slightly bent and hands hanging in 
front of the chest, jumping up on stools or boxes 
and then down. 

2. Tight-Rope Walker. They walk along the 
top of a narrow plank, such as a 2 x 4. 

3. Trapeze Man. They hang from a broom- 
stick or other rod fastened into ropes, hanging 
from a tree in the yard or in a doorway in the 
house. 

4. The Strong Man. They swing a heavy 
imaginary hammer up and down upon an imag- 
inary post, and then throw it far into the air. 

5. The Tall Man. They walk about on tiptoe, 
with their arms stretched high overhead. 

6. At last they play they buy toy balloons, and 
blow them up themselves. 



Imitating the City Helpers 

1. The Policeman walks around, straight and 
tall, swinging his club and blowing his whistle. 

2. The Fireman climbs a ladder, "rescues" a 
doll, and hastily descends. 

3. The Street Cleaner makes the motions of 
brushing and shoveling. 

4. The Messenger Boy runs very fast, deliver- 
ing messages. 

5. The Bell Ringer leans down and up and 
swings his body as he pulls the cluirch bell rope 
down and up. 

6. The Mounted Policeman gallops and can- 
ters on his splendid horse. 

7. The Band Master fills his lungs and blows 
his trumpet, then swings his hand to the band 
and leads off the procession. 

Imitating the Home Sights and Events ' 

1. The Rooster stands on his two feet, throws his 
chest forward and his head back and crows sev- 
eral times, taking in a full breath before each 
crow. 

2. The Farmer sows the seed, carrying his 
sack of seed under his left arm and moving for- 
ward with a large rhythmic movement of his 
right arm. 

3. The Windmill swings its arms slowly from 
the earth in a complete circle through the air. 

4. The Rabbits hop about the lawn and nibble 
the clover. 

5. Greyhounds take long leaps over cushions 
on the floor. Puppies frisk about with shorter 
steps. 

6. Monkeys climb poles and get up into the 
lower branches of safe trees. 

Many other imitations will suggest themselves 
to mother and to child. 



"'Bad' chilrlren are simply those with more self-assertion 
and initiative than the rest." — Randolph Bourne. 



284 



•J S FOURTH YEAR 



IS 

o t. 



PLAYS AND GAMES FOR THE FOURTH YEAR 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



while the thimble is being placed in one of the 
well-known places, and then let him try to find it. 

As a still later development, place the object in 
a new place — at first in plain sight — while the 
child is hiding, and then let him try to find it. 

A child trained in this way will become a keen 
observer. If this is real play it is fair play, for 
the adult should take his turn at finding the 
thimble. 

For ear training use a xylophone, gong, or 
piano. Strike notes that are far apart and help 
the child to distinguish high from low. If a drum 
is too noisy, give him a triangle, so that he may 
make a rhythmic sound. A drum is preferable 
if the neighbors will not object; its simple res- 
onance is more satisfying to the child than instru- 
ments with overtones. 

Hide a clock when a child is not in the room; 
have him find it by listening for the ticking. 

Cover some of the child's toys with an apron 
or a paper. Let him put his hands under the 
cover and feel the objects. After a few trials 
he should be able to tell their names before look- 
ing at them. Gradually increase the similarity of 
the objects; have spools and bottles, buttons and 
pennies or stones. Sometimes let the child gather 
objects and cover them for the adult to guess. 

None of these games needs a special play- 
period. The game with the piano can be played 
when mother is dusting the parlor; at the end of 
the day the toys can be put away, afterward 
naming these as unseen objects; the thimble game 
can be played in kitchen or sewing-room at any 
time. 

Movement-Plays 

Place three bean-bagsf or three spoons on the 
floor a short distance apart. Let the child try 

* All Miss Palmer's articles on play and games are specially rearranged by her for us from her useful book, "Play 
Life in the First Eight Years," by permission of the publishers, Ginn & Company, Boston. 

t Bean-bags should be made of heavy, closely woven material, such as ticking, awning, duck or denim, and should be 
from six to twelve inches square when finished. They are stitched around the outer edge (except for a small length through 
which the beans are inserted). The bag should then be turned and stitched a second time. Hand-sewing is preferable, as 
often better able to stand the strain put upon it. The bag is filled with dried peas or beans. A bag six inches square 
should contain one-half pound of these. A larger bag may contain a few more, but the half-pound weight is good for any 
sized bag. For little children a six or eight-inch bag is very good. It is desirable to have an equipment of bags made 
of two different colors, half of the bags, for instance, being red and the other half blue; or some of striped material and 
others of plain. This aids in distinguishing the bags that belong to opposing teams or groups of players. It is ea^ to 
improvise a substitute, to be made by placing dried leaves in a square cloth, gathering up the corners and tying them 
with a string. — Jessie H. Bancroft. 



A THREE-YEAR-OLD child wants to be active during 
most of his waking hours. For this reason the 
plays that he enjoys are generally those that 
involve some bodily activity. 

Sense-Plays 

Homemade Inset. — An ingenious adult can 
make a rudimentary inset case, such as Dr. 
Montessori finds educative in having little chil- 
dren teach themselves differences in sizes. Select 
six or more spools of graded sizes. Cut circular 
holes in the cover of a shallow box, so that the 
spools will exactly fit in order of size. The child 
must get each spool into its proper place or there 
will be an odd one left over. Let the child experi- 
ment without direction until he has discovered the 
right use of his toy. Bottles can be used instead 
of spools. 

Spools are very good playthings at this time. 
Some of them may be colored with paints or 
crayons or with the aid of nonpoisonous dyes, 
such as are used for clothing. Red, yellow, green, 
and blue are usually the first colors to be distin- 
guished; later orange and purple might be added. 
These can be strung on a cord in many different 
color and size arrangements. 

Play with running water is valuable as an edu- 
cative pastime. 

Hide the Thimble. — Let the mother, while the 
child is looking, place a thimble or spool in an 
unusual place, then let him close his eyes for a 
moment ; when he opens them, let him find the 
object. This is a memory as well as an observa- 
tion test. Repeat this play for several weeks, but 
place the object in more and more obscure 
corners. 

As the next step in this game, persuade the 
child to close his eyes, or to stay in another room, 



286 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



to jump over them or hop over them. Let him 
hop doviTi a pair of steps. 

A tricycle gives good exercise at this time, for 
the child moves over the ground rapidly as he 
delights in doing, yet his weight does not tax 
his leg-muscles. 

Ball Plays 

At about this age a child begins to bounce and 
toss the ball without trying to catch it. He is 
exerting his power over the ball, but does not feel 
the necessity of making it return to him. He will 
experiment quite aimlessly at first, but some day 
the ball will accidentally come to his hand. Such 
added pleasure is gained from the return of the 
ball that he will afterward strive to bring such 
a climax to his play. 

Most of the plays during this year will take 
the form of simple experimenting. The worsted 
ball with a string will give opportunity for vari- 
ous kinds of motion. Let a child have an inclined 
board so that the ball may run down. Let him 
try to roll it up the incline and have it come back 
to him; he will the sooner desire to catcli it when 
bounced or tossed. 

Dramatic Play 

At about three years of age a child begins to 
weave the different incidents of home life into a 
short plot. His ideas are becoming related to 
each other, so that he can play with the thought 
of sequence. He now undresses the baby, gives 
it a bath, puts it to sleep, and then takes up a 
book to read. Or he puts on his hat, goes to 
market, returns with the meat, and cooks it for 
dinner. These connected stories will be acted 
out if nothing interesting happens to distract his 
attention. All such efforts should be encouraged 
by the adult. 

Whenever possible, some question should be 
asked or statement made which would lead the 
child to add more incidents to his play. If the 



train is going round and round, ask at what sta- 
tion it stops. Later suggest that while express 
trains go past so many stations, locals stop very 
often. Generally imply two possible ways of act- 
ing when a statement is made ; the necessity of 
deciding upon a choice makes the imaginary world 
seem very free and yet real. 

Finger Plays 

THE MARCH 

Wave the flag and beat the drum, 
Down the street the soldiers come. 

NUMBERING THE FINGERS 

Go to sleep, little thumb, that's one, 
Go to sleep, pointing finger two, 
Go to sleep, tall finger three. 
Go to sleep, ring finger four, 
Go to sleep, baby finger five. 
Go to sleep, to sleep, to sleep. 

JUST FIVE 

The thumb is one, * 

The pointer two. 
The middle finger three. 

Ring finger four. 

Little finger five. 
And tliat is all you sec. 

A Dance 

Dance to Your Daddy. Children delight in 
dancing as little "Babby" does in Mother Goose 
picture books, and will originate dainty steps, 
swaying back and forth as little Babby would 
do when blown by the wind. 

"Dance to your Daddy, 

My little Babby, 
Dance to your Daddy, 

My little lamb. 
You shall have a fishy 

In a little dishy. 
You shall have a fishy 

When the boat comes in." 



"Blessed are those who play, for theirs is the Kingdom 
of Heaven." — Emily Dickinson. 



AIMS AND METHODS IN CONSTRUCTIVE PLAY 



THE COMMITTEE 



PREPARED BY 

CURRICULUM OF 



ON 
KINDERGARTEN 



THE 

UNION 



INTERNATIONAL 



General Aims in Construction Play 

1. To stimulate a feeling of power which comes 
from control over environment. 

2. To develop energy, resourcefulness, and per- 
sistence in realizing a purpose. 

3. To give means of control over surroundings 
and means of interpreting processes. 



Specific Aims 

I. To satisfy the child's desire 



to experiment 
familiar with 



with materials and thus become 
their properties. 

2. To help the child take the initial steps in art 
and industrial processes. 

3. To develop ability to work with others 
toward common ends. 

Methods in Helping the Child 

Experimentation with Materials to Discover 
Their Characteristics, Properties, and Possible 
Uses. Children come to all new materials with 
a questioning attitude. Curious and eager to gain 
knowledge of and control over their environment, 
they find for a time the mastery of material an 
absorbing problem. The teacher should not hurry 
the children through this period of experimenta- 
tion, for what they learn by direct inquiry is of 
greater value to them than what they are told by 
another, even though a longer time and greater 
effort are required for the learning process. If 
the materials are wisely chosen and hence adapted 
to the present needs and interests of the child, 
they should hold the interest for a time without 
the presence or efforts of the teacher. While the 
child is thus experimenting, however, a mother 
who has a thorough knowledge of her child and 
of materials may direct his activities. 

I. Study the child, making note of his choice of 
materials and problems, his natural ways of work- 
ing, and rate of progress, in order to make sug- 
gestions and to set problems suited to his needs. 



2. Guide the child's interests in and uses of 
materials to prevent them from becoming habitu- 
ally trivial. 

3. Help the child to organize his experiments 
so that these will be useful and will lead con- 
stantly to higher stages of development. 

Solving Problems through the Use of Mate- 
rials. Educators are to-day seeking to develop 
in children initiative and reflective thinking. The 
first pre-requisite of productive thinking is a 
problem which seems to the child real and worthy 
of* solution. 

1. Problems initiated by the child: Experience 
has shown that children are often capable of set- 
ting for themselves worthy problems, the sug- 
gestions for which may come from these sources: 

(a) Ideas may grow out of the child's handling 
of material. Problems are suggested and 
formulated because of discoveries of the 
possibilities of material. 

(b) The child may formulate problems sug- 
gested by some present interest or some 
past experience. 

(c) The child may formulate problems to meet 
needs created by some social situation. 

2. Problems suggested by the teacher : The 
teacher will receive many suggestions for prob- 
lems from watching the child during the free- 
play periods with material, and will select those 
problems which the child shows an interest in 
working out or for which he feels a need. Other 
problems may grow out of some situation, or be 
in line with some seasonal interest. 

These problems, suggested by the teacher, must 
be so in line with the interests, needs, and expe- 
riences of the child that the child will adopt them 
readily as his own. and they must seem to the 
child real and worth the solving in order to pro- 
duce good, productive thinking and interested 
effort. 



* The value of this brief statement, which is condensed from a report that is likely to affect American kindergartners 
for many years to come, is that it clearly states just what the mother ought to have in mind in her endeavor to help the 
child in his handwork, what in general should be her methods, and what she has a right to expect in the way of attain- 
ment. Mrs. Newell, Mrs. Leonard, and Miss Brown have said most of these things, each in her own way, but here, for 
your convenience, is the philosophy of constructive play in one nutshell. — The Editors. 



287 



288 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Imitation, wiiicli helps children to do in a more 
effectual way what they are already struggling 
to do, and which leads to later independent action 
on a higher plane, is a valuable agent of educa- 
tion. If the teacher's contribution is not related 
to the needs of the child, he may follow the sug- 
gestion for the moment, but it produces no efifect 
upon his later work unless it is to make him 
dissatisfied with his own crude products. 

Imitation is often used when the problem is 
one of technique, — a better way of holding the 
scissors or using the hammer; but when the prol5- 
lem is one of expressing ideas the child should, 
in the main, be left free to try this or that method 
and to select the one which works, since this 
is a necessary condition governing the thinking 
process. 



Attainments to Be Expected 

1. Attitudes. Interests, Tastes. Readiness to 
attack simple problems in construction, and faith 
in power to solve them. 

Increased interest in the products of construc- 
tion leading to more purposeful work and effort 
to secure better form. 

Development of the social spirit resulting from 
cooperative effort toward common ends. 

2. Habits, Skill. Increased control of the ma- 
terials and tools which have been used. 

Ability to select suitable material and construct 
without help a number of simple objects. 

3. Knowledge, Information. Acquaintance with 
the properties of a variety of objects and mate- 
rials. 



BEGINNINGS IN HANDWORK* 



MRS. MINNETTA SAMMIS LEONARD 



It is not an unusual thing to find children of 
capable and resourceful mothers more than com- 
monly helpless. Unreasoningly we remark, "How 
strange it is that Mary can do so little for her- 
self; her mother is such a wonderful manager." 
Just here lies, probably, the secret of Mary's 
helplessness. Her mother is as much in need of 
guidance as a friend of ours who remarked the 
other day with woeful sigh, "My children will 
never do much with their hands ; I don't know 
how to teach them." This paper hopes to show 
Mary's mother how not to hurt her child through 
her own ability. 

I would like to make it clear that, however val- 
uable these hand activities may be, it is not essen- 
tial to have a special training or any special set 
of materials to do good work with little children. 
We do need, however, to start with a realization 
of the importance of handwork for children and 
an earnest desire on the mother's part to see that 
the child grows as normally and steadily in the 
use of his brain and hands as in growth of his 
body. Most mothers of to-day are very particular 
about proper food and exercise for their babies 
and watch carefully to see the eft'ect of diet and 
to make proper adjustments to their needs. Much 
the same kind of thought and care is needed for 
this other growth. The mother should give her 
child the right kind of playthings, and he will 
appropriate them as readily as he attacks his food. 



Then, keeping hands off unless really needed, she 
should see what he does with the material. While 
waiting and watching him at work, her mind 
looks ahead and sees difficulties he is likely to 
ifind, and thinks out a reply in case he appeals to 
her for aid. 

I called recently on a friend who has been 
struggling with the problem of employment for 
a four-year-old boy. I was met at the door by 
mother and child, both joyous over the clever 
little suitcase and wagon the boy proudly dis- 
played. The mother said, "John was making a 
bridge and running his trains under it when it 
crashed down. You know how easily John is 
discouraged, and I feared he would give up, so 
I said, 'Oh, dear, I hope no one was hurt. You'd 
better get them to a doctor quick !' He thought 
of an ambulance and told me how he could make 
one." Together they found a box. He worked 
alone some time and then showed a wagon made 
by pushing through two sticks from his tinker- 
toys and putting on wheels from the same toy. 
Then the doctor had to have a surgical case. A 
fat box with adhesive tape cut and put on for 
hinges, a parcel-carrier handle tied on with 
string, and two string-loops which fastened over 
two bent pins, made a splendid case, which also 
later became useful in a visiting game. After 
the paper dolls were made comfortable, the wreck 
was cleared away and traffic resumed. The whole 



• Mrs. Leonard accepts the theories of the preceding article. Note how simply and sensibly she applies them to your 
home situation. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



289 



morning was gone, and the busy mother had a 
chance to get much of her work done while he 
was so occupied. 

Importance of Handwork for Little Children 

There is a vast difference in children, both in 
their ability and in their desire to make things 
with their hands, but every child should have 
his own ability and interest encouraged. There 
are values he gets from this that he gets in no 
other way. Besides the recognized values of 
muscular and nerve development and control, as 
preparation for writing, sewing, and other later 
work, there are two most important reasons why 
the right kind of handwork should begin very 
early with children. The first is that, through 
his work, the child discovers himself as "a cause 
of things happening" — respects himself as a pro- 
ducer, a worker. And, because what he has done 
is a real thing, he can now form an estimate of 
himself. Is there any more joyous cry than the 
child's "Oh, see what I made !" It is full of 
pride and self-importance. The next four years 
belong to handwork, as the following years belong 
to reading, writing, etc. It must be fiozv or, it is 
most likely, never. 

Wrong Kinds of Handwork 

When the things for children to make are 
mostly suggested by older people and the way 
to make them is shown, the wrong sort of hand- 
work is being encouraged. This makes for de- 
pendence. Whatever makes the child say, "I 
can't; you do it," or does not lead to the child's 
impatience to do it for himself, is wrong. Too 
great devotion of adults frequently makes lazy 
youngsters. 

Work which is a strain on the eye, hand, or 
patience, because too difficult or too small, is 
wrong. And, interested as I am in the manual 
development of children, I should say that such 
interest in handwork as keeps the child indoors 
very much, depriving him of exercise and fresh 
air, is harmful. Perhaps if a mother has to drive 
her child out of doors as I do one of ours, she 
may compromise by making a workroom of the 
porch, so that even in cold or rain the child 
may be working in open air. 

Selection of Toys and Play-Material 

My experience has taught me that for the very 
little child the things about the house, kitchen, 
and yard are often the best play-materials. A 
thoughtful mother will often find materials by 
watching what the child chooses for himself. 
She may have to use her superior knowledge 
to substitute a better thing for what he dis- 
covers, as, for instance, the mother who, when 



she found her baby trying to build a tower with 
corks which tumbled down repeatedly, making 
her cry with vexation, substituted several sizes 
of unopened vegetable cans. Children ask for 
every bright string or paper which comes into 
the house, and they find ways to transform 
boards, boxes of all kinds, milk-bottle tops, col- 
lar-buttons, newspapers and what not into toys. 
Many mothers have learned to value wrapping- 
paper for scrapbooks and magazines for pictures 
to cut out and paste into them. Not only is it 
an economy to learn to use these inexpensive 
materials, but much real ingenuity is developed 
in trying to use them. Besides, they are always 
to be had. 

However, as the child grows older he needs a 
few other toys, and it requires much thought and 
judgment on the part of parents to select wisely, 
from the heterogeneous mass displayed in stores, 
a few things of real value. It is necessary to 
say something here about the selection of toys; 
first, because, as little children use materials, 
there is no difference between their playthings 
and their work-things ; and secondly, because the 
sort of toys they have determines largely what 
they make or whether they make anything at all. 

Here are a few matters to consider when buy- 
ing a toy: 

One should be sure (i) that the new material 
is needed; (2) that the child couldn't by any 
possible means make a fair substitute for him- 
self; and (3) that the possession of this toy or 
material will lead to constructive play or work. 
One must see into the future as well as consider 
the present desire. 

The first point is worth considering because 
too many playthings are overwhelming anQ lead 
to confusion and fickle fancy and idleness. Even 
among the toys a child possesses it is wise from 
time to time to put away a few. When the child 
gets them again they are like new and suggest 
all sorts of possibilities for work and play. 

The second point — can a substitute be made 
or found by the child? — is also worth thinking 
about. The Hallowe'en false face that stayed in 
the store window did its work there for my baby, 
aged three years and four months. She tried 
to make one with paper and was fairly successful. 
Then I made her a cardboard pattern which fitted 
her face; showed her how to trace around it, 
and gave her the needed material. When done, 
she used it for dressing up. Making and re-mak- 
ing this face, then varying it to a Santa Claus 
mask with fringed paper beard, she still, in Feb- 
ruary, is occupying some of her time with it. 

Closely related to this point is the third consid- 
eration I mentioned that the material should 



290 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



lead to constructive play or work. Scissors, 
paste, clothespins, blocks, papers, invite always 
to do something; they are useless without effort 
on the part of the child. A doll needs to be fed 
at a table and set in a chair or put to bed. H 
this furniture is lacking, much good work and 
planning is needed to make it. There is no more 
fruitful line of growth through months and years 
than the making and furnishing of a doll-house, 
from the block-furniture in a dry-goods or paste- 
board box, to the elaborate home, made perhaps 
with hammer and saw by the little girl herself 
or her brother, furnished with pasteboard furni- 
ture copied from a catalog, and curtains and 
rugs made and decorated entirely by the child. 
Trains call for bridges to go under and stations 
to stop at. To change the first crude objects 
into a countryside with villages of cardboard, 
farms, and Meccano-bridges, means splendid 
growth for the boy, not only in handwork but 
in interest in home geography. Thus one, in 
choosing toys, may look far into the future as 
well as at the immediate present. The furnished 
doll-house and the "cute" little store-bought rail- 
road station, on the other hand, are the sort of 
things not to buy if one wants to develop a good 
worker. 

By the time he is four, a child should have 
gone a long way toward finding out that he him- 
self has the power to transform things into play- 
things for himself; that the waking day is quite 
too short to carry out the things he has planned, 
and that he can find employment for himself at 
?,ny time ; and he should have learned much about 
the nature of many materials and their uses, even 
if he is not able yet to use them well. 

With the exception of paints, perhaps, all new 
materials should first be given to the child to 
use as he pleases without any "showing" or di- 
rections from parents. It is common for the 
father who brings home a new construction toy 
to drop down on the floor beside the child and 
show him how to use it, and thus rob the child 
of all the fun of discovery, as well as of his 
confidence in what he can do himself. For the 
adult can make so much better and harder things, 
and what the little fellow can do himself is so 
poor in comparison that he gives up in discour- 
agement. Let him get all he can out of it for him- 
self before helping him. Then, when the call 
for help comes, the parent can help wisely, be- 
cause it will be clear just what and how much 
help the child needs. 

Blocks 

Some day. while piling his blocks or shoving 
them along the floor, the child discovers some 



resemblance to a chimney or a street car. He 
names the form and then tries to make it again 
or build it more like his idea of the real thing. 
He remembers that he made this delightful thing 
and starts another day to do it again. He be- 
gins to realize that instead of making and then 
destroying things, he can get more pleasure in 
making and saving them. He finds clothespins 
or other things to ride in his cars. Then these 
constructions change to a house for the people 
to live in, or a bed to sleep in when they get home. 
Usually with very little children many other 
materials are brought into play. These not only 
add interest in the blocks but often lead to better 
building, and may be used by the mother to give 
criticism. While the young child needs much 
praise and encouragement in his work, he ought 
also to have some suggestions to help make it 
better. When our baby showed me a bed she 
had made very well indeed, but too short for the 
doll lying in it, I said, "How straight you have 
made it ; there are no cracks anywhere. But how 
will you keep your baby's feet covered if they 
stick out so far?" "Oh, well, I dess I will mate 
it bidder." And so she corrected her work. 

The large blocks referred to earlier are most 
valuable toys. They are so large that they are 
used for all sorts of purposes. When B. first 
gave doll tea-parties, she seated her family on 
boxes, stools, or even a kettle upside down. 
These seats lacked backs ; so, soon she had to 
hunt out taller objects to place behind. She used 
the large blocks to pile up back of the boxes, 
until finally she found that she could build the 
whole chair with blocks. But even now, at three 
years and eight months, she combines block 
chairs as far as they go with other chairs or 
boxes. We have added to the large oblongs of 
the earlier period other forms made on the same 
scale. A mother ordering blocks made can 
work out her own dimensions, provided she plans 
them so that they fit well together. I give specifi- 
cations of ours at the end of this paper. 

Not only is it fun to build again things made 
previously, but it is pleasant to save good things 
made to show Daddy when he comes home and 
then keep them to start to-morrow's play with. 
Our baby always had a place where she could 
keep her work. Often the ne.xt day's fun, instead 
of beginning all over again, began by making im- 
provements or adding new parts. For example, 
she was very proud of some "deedledums" she 
cleverly reproduced from a set she saw at a 
friend's house. These often stayed for days 
while she built all sorts of things for these 
creatures to use. 

All these constructions were naturally crude 




BEGINNINGS IN HANDWORK 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



291 



and most simple. Now, a year later, she not only 
builds much better, but makes a great many quite 
elaborate things. She has made greater prog- 
ress in blocks than in any other material. 

Clay and Plasticine * 

Clay and plasticine are great favorites. When 
I start getting dinner, out comes the children's 
folding table, their little chairs, the oilcloth 
table-cover, and one of these materials. The 
children attempt almost anything — cakes for 
a bakery, vegetables to play fruit-market with 
(several of the clay ones were saved to paint 
"really" color when dry), animals seen at the 
zoo, beads and marbles, even an umbrella. 
When they have come to me in distress, I have 
shown how to make legs stay on and how to 
smooth surfaces. Aside from that, I let all the 
work be free and do not attempt to guide it, 
except by such indirect suggestions as described 
in the work with blocks. These suggestions they 
can take or not as they please. 

Cutting and Drawing 

For a long time a child uses a pencil or crayon 
merely to mark or scribble and scissors to snip 
with, so that anything which comes in his way 
is likely to suffer. He should never be punished 
for his first destructive offense, because he has 
no idea of doing wrong; it is merely a new ex- 
periment. But the wrong should be made clear 
to him, and at the same time he should be shown 
the newspaper pile or waste-basket and told that 
he is welcome at any time to help himself to 
what paper he needs. After he understands this, 
no offense should go unpunished. It is well to 
show from the beginning that the right use of ma- 
terials means great freedom. 

Drawing is the young child's writing; by it 
he tells his pencil stories. At first it is mere 
scribbling, but later becomes an attempt to pic- 
ture. It is wisest to let him do much of this 
with almost no attempt to direct him, even till 
well into the next period. Showing children how 
to draw prevents their free expression and often 
spoils entirely what might be good work. I 
should draw only for the child who hasn't yet 
gotten any idea of the fun, and only for a starter. 

Sometimes the baby tries to cut out a picture. 
But the handling of scissors requires so much 
skill that during this period I should encourage 
almost no line-cutting, but stimulate much free 
cutting and snipping, finding ways of using results 
so as to make the work constructive. Our child 
has filled a box full of paper snow ; she cuts snips 

* The value of various modeling materials is discussed in 
"A Suggested Play Outfit." 



that she called feathers to fill a doll's pillow— a 
paper bag pasted at the ends; and yesterday she 
made dessert to go in the plasticine gelatine molds 
she had made for the dolls' dinner. She cuts or 
tears long strips of paper and pastes the ends to- 
gether to make links in a paper chain, and cuts 
arms and legs for paper-doll heads. At first I 
folded papers for her to cut "surprises"; now she 
does the whole thing herself. These surprises 
never cease to amuse, and we have found a use 
for large ones, — to set the luncheon table for the 
family, for doll-house rugs, and as valentines with 
picture-flowers pasted on them, the whole mounted 
on another colored paper. She made valentines 
for more friends and relatives than she possesses. 

Now, as I write, she is working beside me on 
a scrapbook. The pages are cast-off sheets of 
this manuscript, which she is sewing together 
in her own way, two at a time, with a paper 
cover cut from a wall-paper book. She has by 
her, to paste in the book when it is done, her 
box of post-cards and pictures saved or cut from 
catalogs. As I do not wish to encourage the 
difficult line-cutting she has picked up from older 
children. I am not criticizing the fact that, in 
her desire not to cut into the picture, she has 
rarely touched the line. When she is surer of her 
control she will begin to cut on the line, and 
when I am sure that she is able without strain 
to do this well, I shall hold her to her best. 

In addition to the nervous strain, another rea- 
son for not letting children do line-cutting early 
is that they become dependent on a pattern in- 
stead of cutting pictures themselves. Paper dolls 
to cut out and pasteboard patterns to trace 
around are good to use occasionally after the 
child has learned to cut freely. "But," says the 
mother, "how shall I encourage my child to cut 
things freely? He is afraid." Watch when he 
is cutting and seize upon any likeness you see — 
"Why, this would look like a pig if it only had 
some legs" — and he will hurriedly paste on 
strips for legs. I handed B. a picture of a baby's 
head, remarking that it would be a good doll to 
dress if it had a body. She disappeared into the 
playroom with it, and after a while came back 
with a doll with a "stummit" (body) — one paper 
strip — and arms and legs of various-sized other 
strips, with slashes at the ends for fingers and 
toes. Then she made dresses and colored them 
with crayon. By and by from this pieced- 
together cutting she will learn to see and cut in 
larger wholes. 

Painting 

I made an exception of painting as not an 
experimental material. Because paints are ex- 



292 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



pensive and easily wasted, and a messed-up paint 
box may spoil any more valuable use, it may be 
vi'ise to give very early a few simple directions, 
such as how to use the brush without spreading 
it, how to mix a pan of color for a wash, and 
how much water is needed to wet the paint 
properly. The painting books, however, so often 
displayed in the stores, are not at all good for 
beginners. Painting inside such small and com- 
plex figures can not possibly be done right during 
this period and will establish careless habits. 
Large and simple forms are different. Our 
youngster traced around a good-sized pan from 
her set of doll-dishes, colored the circle, and made 
it into a bali to go on her Christmas tree. 

We purposely have but a small supply of 
colored paper at our house, so that we have to 
paint or crayon most of what we need for doll 
dresses, bails, strips to make flags and chains, 
and other things. B. is finding how to make 
colors — that blue and yellow produce green, red 
and yellow, orange. She has noticed sunset 
colors, and the stained church windows, and is 
trying to imitate these. She also has a large 
flat painter's brush and helps me do painting and 
staining jobs around the house. She can now 
make a few large sheets of even color with con- 
siderable skill. 

Other Ways the Mother Helps 

There are tvifo other important ways for a 
mother to help. She ought to see to it that 
neither she nor anyone else interrupts the busy 
child until his work is done, if this can be avoided. 
Concentration for him is as important as for his 
older brother working at school tasks. She 
should also help him to take up and finish any 
good thing he has started at another time. I 
keep a mental — sometimes a written — list of 
such things. When asked, "What shall I do now?" 
I recall some of these. Or, when I find time to 
give to the child, we pick up and finish some 
of these projects, uncompleted perhaps because I 
was too busy to help. 

Ways That the Busy Mother May Manage 

Some mother who does her own work exclaims, 
"Mercy, how do you expect me to get my house- 
work done !" If she really wants to, the mother 
can always find a way. Have stools or high fruit- 
baskets to put, inverted, beside the kitchen table 
so that she may watch the children while she 
cooks or washes dishes ; let the outdoor play- 
time come when she has to sweep or clean and 
can not be with the children. Then, when they 
come in. do sewing or writing in the room near 
them. They like to carry their work about the 



house, and are wonderfully patient in moving' it 
from room to room, if they may be near mother. 
And they soon learn to work on newspapers or 
large cloths to prevent unnecessary muss that 
they must clean up after them. Aside from ths 
advance children make under this sort of ar- 
rangement, the beautiful atmosphere of trust and 
comradeship which grows between mother and 
children goes far to help them over the strained 
places elsewhere. The joy the mother herself 
gets from it lifts her out of the dull atmosphere 
of household drudgery. 

PLAYTHINGS WHICH SHOULD BE 
BOUGHT FOR EVERY CHILD 

I. Blocks 

At least one good set of blocks, preferably two, 
a large and a smaller set : 

Here are several block sets to choose from: 

Large Blocks 

1. The Hennessy Blocks, sold by the Milton 
Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. 

These are of various shapes, including the 
cylinder; they come in a large hardwood box and 
cost from live to eighteen dollars. 

2. Blocks made to order by any carpenter, from 
two units: (i) oblongs at least as large as a 
brick and (2) square blocks the length of the 
oblongs ; there should be two or three dozen of 
the oblongs and nearly as many square blocks. 
(3) A dozen oblongs may be cut from end to end 
for posts. (4) Cubes glued together to make 
larger cubes than can be made from a single piece 
of wood. (5) Two dozen squares cut diagonally 
from corner to corner, for large triangular blocks. 
(6) One dozen squares cut twice diagonally for 
smaller triangles. 

Our set is made from oblongs 7x3^/2x154 
inches and squares 7 x 7 x l^ inches. 

With this set should be included thin boards of 
various lengths and widths. 

3. Schoenhut's "Hill" Kindergarten Blocks. 
The A. Schoenhut Company, Philadelphia, Pa. 

These blocks are wonderful in their possibili- 
ties and in the muscular development they give. 
It is worth while to send to the company for the 
circular describing them. The difficulty in having 
them for the average family is their expense, and 
in most homes the lack of space for using them. 
The company sells quarter sets. Where children 
from several families play together, a set might 
be used in common. 

4. Peg-Lock Blocks. The Peg-Lock Block 
Company, Fort Lee. New Jersey. All sorts of 
forms may be built with them and fastened to- 
gether with the pegs. 




MIXING COLORS FROM THE THREE PRIMARY COLORS— RED, BLUE, AND YELLOW 

Green — 1 part yellow + 1 part blue 

Orange — 1 part yellow + 1 part red 

V'iolet — 1 part blue + 1 part red 

Neutral gray — 1 part yellow + 1 P^rl blue -)- 1 part red 

Yellow-green — 3 parts yellow + 1 part blue 

Blue-green — 3 parts blue + 1 part yellow 

Yellow-orange — 3 parts yellow -|- 1 part red 

Red-orange — 3 parts red + 1 P^^t yellow 

Blue-violet — 3 parts blue + 1 part red 

Red-violet — ■ 3 parts red -j- 1 P^rt blue 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



293 



5. The Star-l)uilt Blocks. The Emhossing Com- 
pany, Albany, N. Y. 

Small Blocks 

1. The Frochel Gift Blocks (enlarged). The 
Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. 

Each set is of hard maple and comes in a 
cherry-wood box. 

3d Gift: Eight two-inch cubes. 

4th Gift: Eight oblongs 2 .x 4 x i inch. 

5th Gift: Twenty-one two-inch cubes. 

Six large triangles made from the cubes cut 
once diagonally. 

Twelve small triangles made from the cubes cut 
twice diagonally. 

6th Gift: Made by similar divisions of the ob- 
longs of the fourth : Eighteen whole oblongs 
2 X 4 X I inch. 

Six columns — oblongs cut from end to end. 

Twelve two-inch squares — oblongs cut cross- 
wise. 

2. Homemade substitutes for these more ex- 
pensive blocks, made from sets found in all toy 
stores : 

1. From three sets of 12 large ABC cubes at 
25 cents each : Two dozen cubes used as they are. 
One dozen large triangles — si.x cubes sawed once 
diagonally. Two dozen small triangles — six cubes 
sawed twice diagonally. 

2. From three sets of 12 "circus" oblong blocks 
at 25 cents each : Two dozen oblongs used a.s they 
are. Twelve posts — si.x oblongs sawed from end 
to end. Twelve squared — six oblongs sawed 
crosswise. 

II. Modeling Material 

1. Clay: This may be obtained from any school 
supply house or artists' supply store ; in some cities 
it may be obtained from a pottery or kiln or tile 
works. 

2. Plasticine, plastina, or plastiline: materials 
always ready to use, and presumably healing to 
the skin because of the glycerine in them to keep 
them moist. These come in several colors and 
may be bought at any artists' supply house, large 
toy department, or regular school supply house. 

3. Moldolith (Milton Bradley): Looks like 
clay, but is a little easier to care for, needing only 
to be put away always in a tightly covered jar or 
tin can. 

4. Permodello (A. S. Barnes Company, New 
York) : a plastic material that hardens without 
baking. 

III. Coloring Material 

I. A Good Paint Box: The best and cheapest 
are Milton Bradley's and Prang's. These are 



carried by the small supply stores for school 
children and cost from 25 cents up. 

2. A Good Camel's Hair Brush: The brushes 
that come in the bo.xes are not good enough for 
real use. 

3. Scissors: The blunt points are safest, but 
those with one sharp point answer more purposes. 

4. Crayons : These may be found almost any- 
where at 5 or 10 cents a box. Very desirable 
large marking crayons may be bought from the 
Milton Bradley Company at 35 cents a dozen. 

5. Good Paste : The bottled pastes or wall- 
paper paste. This latter is convenient, as it can 
be got in flour form in pound packages at any 
wall-paper house and mixed like flour and water 
in small amounts as wanted ; it costs about 80 
cents a pound, in any quantity. 

6. A Good Blackboard with Colored and White 
Crayons: A large slate-board is best, but these 
cost more and are breakable. We enjoy most a 
large piece of blackboard cloth which can be 
rolled to go in a trunk, spread out on floor or 
table, or tacked to a large pasteboard and hung 
on the wall. Our piece is about a yard wide, and 
we bought three-quarters of a yard at a large 
stationer's store for 90 cents. 

7. A Low, Comfortable Work-Table: This can 
be made by a carpenter or from a kitchen table 
with legs sawed off. The Milton Bradley Com- 
pany have tables of soft green and dark and 
light brown with chairs to match. The chair 
should be broad-seated and comfortable, low 
enough for the child's feet to rest on the floor. 

IV. Other Playthings Desirable to Buy 

1. Large Manila Drawing Papers — for painting 
also : these may be bought at school supply shops. 
Or, the yellow typewriter paper which Father uses 
so much. 

2. Large gray bogus drawing papers for fold- 
ing, painting, and drawing — to be had in the same 
places. 

3. A good supply of tiles such as are used for 
floors : these can be bought at a plumbers* sup- 
ply store ; they cost about $2 a square foot. As 
the half-inch or three-quarter-inch squares are 
good, a great many of several colors may be had 
in one square foot. 

4. Colored Folding Papers in four-inch, five- 
inch, and six-inch squares: at Milton Bradley's; 
also at some newspaper stands and stationers' 
stores. 

5. Large Wooden Beads and Shoe Strings for 
stringing them : these beads come in natural 
wood — red, green, orange, blue, purple, and yel- 
low; they are made by Milton Bradley and may 
be got of them or in large toy shops. 



294 



thf: homk kindergarten manual 



6. Carpenters' Tools: a small hammer with 
broad head and short handle, a screwdriver, small 
stout saw, and a box of assorted nails, tacks, and 
screws. More usable tools may be had at small 
cost from five-and-ten-cent stores than those in 
tool sets for sale in toy stores. The best sets 
are those put up for use in schools: a school 
supply house can either furnish these or tell where 
they may be had. 

7. A good paper doll with arms and hands 
standing out from the body. This will last longer 
if mounted on cloth and cut out. 

8. "Wood-Bildo" sets, found at any toy store, 
are similar to the Meccano toys, but better 
adapted to the small child. The set consists of 
various-sized wheels which fit into grooved and 
notched strips of wood. 

9. "Wonder Blocks," made by Baker & Ben- 
nett Company, New York City, and sold in the 
toy stores. These are not easily combined with 
other sets, but furnish excellent fun and good 
training for little children. 

10. The Tinker Toy, sold at toy stores: besides 
its use as a set of mechanical materials, furnishes 
wheels, axles, and rods to use with other things. 

V. Useful Articles Found at Home 

1. Wooden boxes for houses, wagons, cup- 
boards : boxes may be carefully taken apart and 
used as building materials, their notched ends fit- 
ting together to hold the boards in place. They 
make good combinations with building blocks. 

2. Fruit-jar lioxes, useful for houses and carts. 

3. All sorts and sizes of pasteboard boxes. 

4. Small fruit baskets, for furniture and for 
hammock swings, with clothespins used as stand- 
ards. 

5. Bottoms of one-half bushel baskets make 
fine wagon wheels. 

6. Milk bottle tops, all kinds of circular paste- 
board pieces, and spools also serve as wheels, 
plates, saucers, and clock faces. 



7. Toothpicks, burnt matches, and meat skewers 
are valuable in many ways. 

8. Brass paper fasteners, collar buttons sent 
home from the laundry, and round sticks are use- 
ful to fasten on wheels. 

9. Button molds serve for wheels and for 
stringing along with spools, cranberries, rose hips, 
and the like. 

10. Spools serve for furniture legs. 

11. Clothespins are useful as dolls, legs to 
box-furniture, etc. 

12. Wrapping papers and pasteboard oblongs 
which come home from the laundry in shirt pack- 
ages are good substitutes for folding, cutting, and 
painting papers, and for pages in scrapbooks. 

13. Newspapers are almost unlimited in their 
uses. 

14. Wallpaper sample-books serve for folding, 
cutting, and papering doll houses. 

15. Tinfoil. 

16. String. 

17. Pins — with a cushion for holding them. 

18. Magazine and catalog pictures are used 
for dolls, for pictures to mount or frame, and for 
scrapbook material. 

19. Pumpkin seeds and other large flat seeds 
are used for stringing and for making outline 
pictures. 

20. Apples and potatoes, with stick arms and 
legs, for making animals and men. 

21. The paper caps which some milk-dealers 
use over the tops of bottles make good cups and 
saucers and other dishes. 

22., Bits of cloth and blunt, large-eyed needles. 

23. Pasteboard patterns of animals to be traced 
around. These may be traced with tissue paper 
from picture books and transferred to pasteboard 
by using carbon paper and then cutting out. 

24. A mother may find packages of home-made 
folding squares, cut from wrapping or news- 
papers, very handy and much less expensive for 
common use than the colored papers. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-HELP* 



BY 



MARIA MONTESSORI 



We habitually serve children : and this is not only 
an act of servility toward them, but it is danger- 
ous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spon- 
taneous activity. We are inclined to believe that 
children are like puppets, and we wash them and 

* From "The Montessori Method," by Maria Montessor 
Company, New York. 



feed them as if they were dolls. We do not stop 
to think that the child who does not do, does not 
know how to do. He must, nevertheless, do these 
things, and Nature has furnished him with the 
physical means for carrying on these various 

Used by permission of the publishers, Frederick A. Stokes 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



295 



activities, and with the intellectual means for 
learning how to do them. And our duty toward 
him is, in every case, that of helping him to make 
a conquest of such useful acts as Nature intended 
he should perform for himself. The mother who 
feeds her child without making the least effort 
to teach him to hold the spoon for himself and to 
try to find his mouth with it, and who does not 
at least eat herself, inviting the child to look and 
see how she does it, is not a good mother. She 
ofifends the fundamental human dignity of her 
son — she treats him as if he were a doll, when he 
is, instead, a man confided by Nature to her care. 

Who does not know that to teach a child to feed 
himself, to wash and dress himself, is a much 
more tedious and difficult work, calling for in- 
finitely greater patience, than feeding, washing, 
and dressing the child oneself? But the former 
is the work of an educator, the latter is the easy 
and inferior work of a servant. Not only is it 
easier for the mother, but it is very dangerous 
for the child, since it closes the way and puts ob- 
stacles in the path of the life which is developing. 

Another very interesting observation is that 
which relates to the length of time needed for the 
execution of actions. Children who are under- 
taking something for the first time are extremely 
slow. Their life is governed in this respect by 
laws especially different from ours. Little chil- 
dren accomplish slowly and perseveringly various 
complicated operations agreeable to them, such as 
dressing, undressing, cleaning the room, washing 
themselves, setting the table, eating, etc. In all 
this they are extremely patient, overcoming all 
the difficulties presented by an organism still in 
process of formation. But we, on the other hand, 



noticing that they are "tiring themselves out" or 
"wasting time" in accomplishing something which 
we would do in a moment and without the least 
effort, put ourselves in the child's place and do it 
ourselves. Always with the same erroneous idea, 
that the end to be obtained is the completion of 
the action, we dress and wash the child, we snatch 
out of his hands oljjects which he loves to handle, 
we pour the soup into his bowl, we feed him, we 
set the table for him. 

What would become of us if we fell into the 
midst of a population of jugglers, or of lightning- 
change impersonators of the variety-hall? What 
should we do if, as we continued to act in our 
usual way, we saw ourselves assailed by these 
sleight-of-hand performers, hustled into our 
clothes, fed so rapidly that we could scarcely swal- 
low, if everything we tried to do was snatched 
from our hands and completed in a twinkling and 
we ourselves reduced to impotence and to a 
humiliating inertia? Not knowing how else to 
express our confusion we would defend ourselves 
with blows and yells from these madmen, and 
they, having only the best will in the world to 
serve us, would call us haughty, rebellious, and 
incapable of doing anything. We, who know our 
own milieu, would say to those people, "Come into 
our countries and you will see the splendid civili- 
zation we have established, you will see our won- 
derful achievements." These jugglers would ad- 
mire us infinitely, hardly able to believe their eyes, 
as they observed our world, so full of beauty and 
activity, so well regulated, so peaceful, so kindly, 
but all so much slower than theirs. 

Something of this sort occurs between children 
and adults. 



COLLECTING NATURE MATERIALS* 



BY 



KATHERINE BEEBE 



"O little feci, amid the grass. 
Chasing the shadoifs as they pass. 
The river talks beside your icar, 
The winds are sweet at dazvn of day, 
O little feet." 

— Mary T. H. Skrine. 



come dulled and blunted if his questions are not 
answered and his efforts appreciated. To be 
much out-of-doors with the children, to follow 
their restless leadings, to be interested where they 
are interested, and to be able to lead them into 
"fresh fields and pastures new" when they are 

* From "Home Occupations for Little Cliildren," by Katherine Beebe, published by the Saalfield Publishing Compan;, 
Akron, Ohio. Used by permission of the publishers. 



It is a mistake to think that little children, un- 
aided, will become observers and lovers of Nature. 
We of the present generation have but to look 
back to our own childhood to prove that. In 
spite of a child's love of outdoor life and his 
keen interest in all he sees, that interest will be- 



296 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



ready to go, is to "live with our children" as 
Froebel hoped we should some day. 

Play with Fruits and Nuts 

This lover of children laid great stress on 
sense-games in his book for mothers. He would 
have them train the senses of their children to 
acuteness and discrimination by means of play. 
In one kindergarten this idea was carried out in 
September by means of the fruits so abundant 
at that time. A number of these were provided, 
the number suited to the ages and abilities of 
the children, who named them and counted them, 
and also drew them with colored chalk. One 
child's eyes being blindfolded, another child hid 
one of the fruits. It was then the turn of the 
blinded one to guess which fruit was missing, and 
if he guessed correctly he was "heartily cheered;" 
if his guess was wrong, he tried again another 
time. This was played as long as the children 
were interested, and on another occasion a game 
of guessing, by feeling the fruits, filled a half 
hour, while still later they were guessed by smell- 
ing and tasting. 

Such games as these, when taught to children 
and played occasionally with them, ought to set 
them going in this particular direction to their 
own physical, mental, and spiritual upbuilding. 
Older children delight in these simple kinder- 
garten games and seldom have the opportunity 
they wish to learn and use them. In their play- 
ing school or playing kindergarten they could 
amuse both themselves and younger brothers and 
sisters in this way, for the games can be played 
with nuts, leaves, shells, stones, blocks, flowers, 
grains, children, and miscellaneous objects. 

Nuts, used after this manner, make delightful 
playthings, and kindergarten children delight in 
playing they are squirrels and hunting the nuts 
previously hidden by one of their number, es- 
pecially if privileged to eat the nuts at the end of 
the game. Hunting nuts in the real woods is a 
joy which children should taste oftener than they 
usually do, for in these days of railroads and 
electric cars, the woods are not so very far off, 
and once a year at least there should be a nutting 
party in every well-regulated family. 

Making Nature Collections 

If, in the Indian summer days, after the leaves 
are off the trees and the birds have flown, a col- 
lection of nests could be made from the woods, 
parks, or suburbs, by means of excursions in com- 
pany with a boy of tree-climbing age and pro- 
pensities, a work worth doing would be wrought 
in the minds and hearts of all concerned. 

Nothing gives children more pleasure in the 



Fall than milkweed pods full of the "dainty milk- 
weed babies." Go where these are to be found 
in September or October; bring them home and 
let them dry in the house ; explain to the chil- 
dren why they are furnished with wings and how 
the wind plants them ; let them have some pods 
to play with out of doors on windy days; and 
let them make pretty winter bouquets of dry 
clusters of the pods for friends and relatives. 
Little girls can make down pillows of the seeds 
for their dolls, and an ambitious child could even 
collect enough for a down pillow for a real baby. 
Thistledown can also be used in this way. 

During the Autumn the different kinds of seeds 
and seed-pods greatly interest the children, who 
would enjoy gathering them if there was any 
reason which appealed to them for so doing. 
The interest of the older people in such a col- 
lection is sufficient oftentimes to stimulate them 
to effort, but a real object, such as saving for 
next year's garden, making a collection for a 
present to somebody, or gathering quantities to 
be sent to city relations, or anyone poor or sick, 
appeals more to the child. He is a reasonable 
little being and does not care to do things which 
are not "worth while," any more than we do. 
An examination of the seeds with a microscope 
will repay anyone, and no child will fail to be 
interested in the perfectly formed leaves tucked 
up in many seeds all ready for next year. 

Play with Leaves and Acorns 

When the leaves begin to fall, playthings are 
literally showered on those children whose eyes 
and hearts true sympathy has opened. It is a 
commonly pathetic sight in autumn days to see a 
little child gathering the bright leaves with a 
wistful what-can-I-do-with-you expression, only 
to throw them away. If he brings them into the 
house, they are often unnoticed and uncared for, 
and the most he can expect is to have them put 
into a glass of water and forgotten. The names 
can be learned ; guessing games can be played 
with them ; they can be traced, drawn, and 
painted; beautiful borders and patterns can be 
laid with them ; tea-tables can be decorated with 
them ; wreaths and festoons can transform* the 
child into an autumn picture for his father; they 
can also be pressed, varnished, and waxed. 

In the great masses of dead rustling leaves are 
delightful places to play squirrel and rabbit 
games, and for a romp, what material is better 
adapted for tossing, rolling, and throwing? 
Children will rake leaves patiently, if, when 
Father comes home, they can be present at the 
bonfire. 

Baskets of acorns will be gladly gathered if 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



297 



they can be used, and in many a city kindergarten 
they would be treasures indeed. The double 
acorn cups can be strung by slipping the string 
between the two cups. These productions give 
much pleasure to the children who have to find 
the double acorns and string them, as well as to 
the baby brother, sister, or neighbor to whom they 
can be presented. 

Other Collections 

Corncobs in quantity made in olden times, and 
still make, charming playthings, and a corn-husk 
dolly would be a greater treasure than one from 
a store to many an indulged child. Wild cucum- 
bers and toothpicks will stock a miniature farm 
with bristling pigs, and the vines can be grown 
in almost any spot of earth where there is good 
soil. 

Stones always interest children, but the interest 
is a fleeting one for the reason that limitations 
are reached so soon. If a place is prepared for 
a collection of the most attractive stones, and if 
the mother can tell her child a little of their his- 
tory, an added stimulus to patient hunting and 
sorting is given. 

The bright berries of Autumn, the haws, 
thorn-apples, and cranberries are beautiful for 
stringing purposes, making a pleasant change 
from beads and buttons. In season, clover heads, 
dandelion heads and the tiny flowers which make 
up the lilac's blossom make good material for 
stringing, and this industry should be added to the 
familiar occupations of making dandelion curls 
and chains. 

Nature Handicraft 

Get a sheet of dark bronze paper on whose 
white side flying birds can be traced from a 
pattern. The model can be drawn and cut out of 
pasteboard, or a picture be made to serve the pur- 
pose. Let the children trace and cut out a flock 
of these birds; fasten them high up on the nurs- 
ery wall, headed south in the Fall, and make 
others which can head north in the Spring. Sets 
of these can be made for friends and saved for 
Christmas and birthday gifts ; for a present which 
is not the child's own has little value, as a gift, in 
his eyes compared with one which has cost him 
effort or sacrifice. 

Where children can have the use of hammers 
and nails, they can make crude bird-houses in 
which real birds will live all Summer, and they 
will often spend a half-hour raveling out bits of 
coarsely-woven cloth, which, hung on bushes, 
trees or fences in the Spring, are to furnish the 
birds with nest-building material. 



Things that Live and Grow 

A globe, or other receptacle, in which fish can 
be kept will be a treasure to children old enough 
to go about alone or fortunate enough to possess 
a grown-up real friend who will take them occa- 
sionally where they want to go. It will give a 
reason for the collection of frogs' eggs, tadpoles, 
tiny minnows, crawfish, and mussels. How chil- 
dren love these things, and how seldom is it worth 
their while to bring them home. "They are very 
interesting, dear," says Mamma, trying to repress 
a look of disgust, "but we have no place to keep 
such things. Throw them away." A tub in 
which water from their own homes and breeding- 
places can be placed seems to agree best with 
tadpoles, by the way. 

To learn the trees by name, to know their 
blossoms and seed, is a pursuit in which old and 
young may join with mutual pleasure and profit. 
The country is full of thriving little seedling 
trees which, striving for life in vacant lots, park- 
ways and roadsides, will one day become real 
trees, if transplanted into an amateur nursery. 
Someone once suggested that if, for every child 
born, a tree, seedling, or seed were planted, the 
forestry problem would be solved. 

A miniature fruit farm can be made by plant- 
ing apple, peach, plum, pear, cherry, orange, or 
lemon seeds, and, while it may never reach a very 
advanced state, the planting of the seeds, the 
watching for the first shoots, and the observation 
of the tiny trees will fill up some of those indus- 
trial vacancies for which we are trying to pro- 
vide. When we were children there were few 
Springs when we did not plant a vegetable garden 
in an old dish-pan or cheese-box, using for plant- 
ing purposes one potato, one beet, one onion, one 
turnip, and one anything else we could get. I 
do not remember that there was ever any outcome 
to this agricultural enterprise, but I have a very 
distinct recollection of the pleasure this tilling of 
the soil gave to me. I will add that we lived in 
a city and that our backyard was boarded over, 
but to the true farmer-spirit all things are 
possible. 

The collecting of cocoons in the Fall will give 
occupation at that time as well as later on when 
the moths come out. These are found in both 
city and country, and a study of them will prove 
most interesting. 

More Nature Playthings 

Of the small snail shells found on the lake 
shore, and in gravel piles, strings can be made, 
as they usually have holes in them. A child will 
hunt patiently for these treasures even when he 



298 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



has not the hope of using them. Babies and 
younger children are dehghted recipients of such 
gifts as these, and the fact that they so soon tire 
of them need not affect either the work or the 
satisfaction of the donor. 

Drinking-cups can be made of large leaves 
pinned together by their stems, and those of us 
who read the Rollo books long ago remember that 
the backs of the lilac leaves can be used for slates 
if pins are the pencils. I have known kindergar- 
ten graduates to reproduce their brief educational 
experience, using pebbles, twigs, leaves, dande- 
lion stems, and burrs for material. The pebbles 
were seeds, the twigs sticks, the leaves folding 
papers, and the burrs clay. They even wove 
coarse grass into mats and did pricking with thin 
leaves and stiff grasses. 

The burdock's prickly seed-pod can be made, 
not only into baskets and nests, but into animals, 
furniture, and almost any sort of object. It is 
well to protect little hands with old gloves for 
this work, for the burrs leave invisible splinters 
in the fingers, which are very uncomfortable. 
Until one has tried it, one does not know how 
lifelike and satisfactory to the children are the 
squirrels, rabbits, dogs, cats, and elephants which 
can be made of either the green or the brown 
burrs. The golden-rod galls can, with a knife 
and the addition of grasses or stems, be trans- 
formed into tiny vases and dishes. Flower dolls 
make beautiful fairies with their pansy, daisy, 
or dandelion faces, their leaf shawl and poppy 
or morning-glory skirts, and "pea-pod boats with 
rose-leaf sails" are delightful possibilities. 

Making a Fairyland 

I know one child whose delight it was to make 
fairylands, filling a shady corner or shallow box 



with moss-covered earth in which she planted 
miniature trees, flowers, and shrubs, sinking a 
saucer, which could be filled with water, into the 
ground for a lake. 

.On a lakeside or seashore the construction of 
hills, mountains, islands, and rivers gives even a 
little child at times more satisfaction than his own 
rather aimless building of houses. One group 
of children made the Michigan fruit farms and 
a smaller Lake Michigan, over whose waters 
fruit-laden boats sailed to city markets. 

Radical as it sounds, water makes a delightful 
plaything, but it is seldom used because — it is 
too much trouble ! Happy is the child equipped 
for play in a fresh puddle left by the rain, or in 
a tub of water in the backyard ! Happy is the 
cliild who is sometimes dressed for a frolic in 
a warm summer shower, who on hot days is 
allowed to play in the bath-tub or with the hose ! 
Happy are those children who, when taken to 
shore or beach, are dressed, or undressed, so that 
they will not have to be cautioned every other 
minute not to get wet ! The old familiar rhyme 
beginning "Mother, may I go out to swim?" — 
you know the rest — would be appreciated by many 
children on lake shore and ocean beach if they 
happened to know it. 

Mother Nature, with her sunshine, rain, wind, 
hail, snow, and various commotions and combina- 
tions of the elements, is always ready to play with 
the children, and they with her, were they 
only allowed to do so. They are not allowed 
because of the fear that they will soil or in- 
jure their clothes, hurt themselves, take cold, or 
be too much trouble to someone, and so they lose 
many hours which, through the happiest play, 
might bring to them health, courage, freedom, 
and joy. 



BEAD-STRINGING 



MRS. CARRIE S. NEWMAN 



Stringing beads has always been a favorite oc- 
cupation of little children. It is, we presume, an 
instinct inherited from their ancestors, as beads 
of stone or metal have been found in the tombs 
and caves of many ancient peoples. All primitive 
folk have delighted to decorate themselves with 
necklaces of various kinds. 

But the haphazard material usually supplied 
the children has prevented satisfactory results. 



and so the interest quickly dies and bears very 
little fruit. 

To satisfy this instinct and make it of real edu- 
cational value, the kindergarten provides large 
wooden beads of the six prismatic colors and 
the three forms, ball, cube, and cylinder. These 
are strung upon shoelaces or stout string, and the 
combinations that can be made are simply lim- 
itless. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



299 



At first one string alone is used; later, as the 
child gains skill of hand and development of 
mind, two, three, or even four strings may be 
used in one combination, so the work can be 
spread over a number of years. 

The tiny child of two years is delighted to run 
the tag through the hole in the bead and see it 
run down the string, and will fill string after 
string with a miscellaneous assortment. His joy 
is confined to the manual operation, to using his 
hands; form and color are as yet meaningless to 
him. But little fingers are being trained and 
brought under the control of their owner. 

Then, just at the right moment, the mother or 
an older child suggests that he pick out all those 
like sister's red hair ribbon, or the red geranium 
in the vase, and a whole new world opens before 
his eager eyes as comparison and classification 
become factors in his play. His first attempts 
will probably result in a mixture of red and 
orange, if red is the color chosen, or of blue and 
green if blue is what he is seeking, but these dif- 
ficulties will soon be overcome. After stringing 
red or blue beads he will delight in a game the 
object of which is to find all the articles of that 
color in a given space, the room, or the garden. 

Combination Stringing 

Once familiar with the different colors, he can 
begin making combinations. Here the uncolored 
beads are valuable, as the combinations are more 
truly artistic. If Mother or Sister makes a 
chain of one red, one white, he will hail it with 
delight as prettier than the one color and be eager 
to imitate. The next step is to make a different 
combination. He has now entered upon a limit- 
less source of joy, for it has been calculated that 
four hundred different combinations can be made 
on single strings and more than a thousand 
where several strings are used as one. Of course 
this, like other occupations, gives greater pleasure 
when several children work together, each aiming 
to make the prettiest combination he can im- 
agine. 

A glass prism hung in a sunny window, so that 
a rainbow is thrown on the floor or wall, will 
greatly delight the children and lead to the making 
of rainbow chains. Soap bubbles will often pro- 
vide a similar valuable experience. 

A new line of thought may be started by calling 
the children's attention to the colors of flowers 
and suggesting that they make chains to represent 
certain flowers — yellow and green for buttercups, 
blue and yellow for forget-me-nots, for instance. 
At this time a box of paints and experiences in 
mixin? colors will be most valuable. 



Laying Beads in Patterns 

The beads need not always be strung. Many 
games of position and direction may be played, 
as the child lays borders of contrasting colors, or 
picks out green cubes and arranges them to rep- 
resent a lawn and places a border of tulips or 
crocuses around it, if such be a part of his en- 
vironment. 

What a gloriously happy rainy afternoon might 
be spent in thus reproducing in miniature his out- 
door surroundings ! Would it not be worth while 
going to some public park or garden purposely 
to get such a setting for his play if there is no 
garden at home? Will not such memories be life- 
long possessions, lending a charm to picture and 
poem in later life? Are not many lives dwarfed 
and stunted just for the lack of such experiences 
in early childhood ? 

Another trip might be taken to drink in the 
wealth of color in the market or fruit store in 
the Autumn, and the beads used to reproduce it. 
Then if Father will lead the little minds to pene- 
trate into the wonderful life-history of some of 
these children of Xature, he will add to their 
lives, and perhaps renew in his own that which 
no money could purchase. The natural culmi- 
nation of such experiences is of course a song 
which embodies these thoughts. 

Special attention may be called to the form of 
the beads by making such combinations as, three 
cubes and one ball ; a ball, a cube, and a cylinder 
in one color; or making human beings by placing 
a cylinder on a cube and adding a ball for a head. 
A string of uncolored cylinders makes a fine 
garden-hose, while colored cylinders make fa- 
mous jars of jelly for the dollies. 

Other Materials for Stringing 

But beads are not the only material for string- 
ing. Nature provides many suitable objects, such 
as nuts, shells, seeds, berries, and haws. And 
the gathering of these will help to open the chil- 
dren's eyes to the many wonders so generously 
strewn about them. To be able to read even a 
page or two of Nature's wonderful story-book is 
surely a valuable accomplishment. And the time 
to begin this study is in early childhood. 

A bundle of the artificial straws used in ice- 
cream parlors, cut in inch lengths, will be a much- 
prized adjunct to the stringing. 

Bead-Stringing and Number 

In stringing, the child is constantly making use 
of different number-combinations and laying up 



K.N.— 21 



300 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



information which will be invaluable when he 
begins his number work in the primary grade. 
He knows the difference between three and five, 
two and four, etc., and has a definite impression 
to call upon when any simple number is men- 
tioned, and so is saved the hiborious work many 
a little child goes through. 

Colored paper, cut in circles and squares and 
Strung with straws, makes a beautiful decora- 
tion for nursery or for Christmas tree. Narrow 



strips of paper pasted in rings and joined together 
make a pleasing variation. 

While to our adult eyes these chains may not be 
artistic, to the children they are truly beautiful 
and a source of intense delight. 

Older children may manufacture their own 
beads from colored paper, following directions 
given in many magazines. A friend has just told 
me of a little girl who makes pretty chains by 
stringing cloves and glass beads. 



'THE HOLY GIFT OF COLOR"* 



BY 



ELIZABETH HARRISON 



"Of all of God's gifts to the sight of man, color 
is the holiest, the most divine, the most solemn," 
said John Ruskin. 

And yet, wonderful as is the infinite variety 
which color presents, the average human eye is 
dull to much of its marvelous beauty. Ceaseless 
as are the changing emotions which its lights and 
shadows awaken, the average human life is poor 
and empty, although surrounded on every hand 
by these inestimable riches ! 

Many Young Folks Are "Color-Blind" 

I took with me to the country one Summer for 
a short vacation a bright and intelligent young 
girl. She was sensible, had the average educa- 
tion, and was unusually attractive. She was a 
good conversationalist, had taught school several 
years, and was in many respects far above the 
commonplace young woman. Much to my aston- 
ishment, I found that she had never taken a walk 
before sunrise, and therefore knew nothing of the 
silent, mysterious beauty which precedes the birth 
of a summer morning. 

She was wild with delight over the long shad- 
ows on the grass, and the straight yellow rays 
sent forth by the upper rim of the coming sun. 
A tall row of hollyhocks that glittered like trans- 
parent gems as the early sunbeams struck through 
their pink and crimson petals were as new to her 
as to a child. She had never watched a sunset 
across a body of water, and so knew naught of 
the thrill that comes as the earth catches the glory 
of the heavens and the two become one in a har- 
mony that fills and exalts the beholder, much as 



great music does the attentive listener. She had 
never seen the miracle in which the sunlight 
transforms an ordinary chestnut tree into an en- 
chanted tree, each leaf of which is outlined with 
glittering gold. In fact, she did not know a 
chestnut tree from an elm, and listened with won- 
der to the story of the rose and carmine, the ru.5- 
set and buff blossoms with silken and velvet tex- 
ture that adorn the oak and hickory each Spring. 
And her pleasure was almost childish when she 
learned that the bark, twig, leaf, and blossom 
of a tree all harmonized in color, and told of the 
same characteristics as did its shape and branch- 
ing, its roots and leaf-veins. Day after day, her 
evident blindness to the most apparent beauties 
of nature became more and more evident, until 
at last I exclaimed, "Where were you brought up? 
What did you do as a child?" "I lived," she re- 
plied, "in a country town all through my child- 
hood, but I was a sidewalk child ! I can explain 
it in no other way 1" 

I liked her frankness and the term she had 
coined, "sidewalk child." It exactly describes 
hundreds of children who may be seen any day 
in our great cities, straggling listlessly along the 
streets, or worse still, if they chance to belong 
to the so-called better class, being led unwillingly 
along by some dull-faced nursery maid. 

Even in our smaller towns I have heard the 
thoughtless mother give a parting injunction to 
her little daughter as she opened the door for her, 
"Now. take care of your dress; don't get ofT the 
sidewalk and don't play with anything that will 
soil your hands !" Such a command — when all 
God's world was inviting the child to come and be 



* From "Some Silent Teachers,' 
by permission of the author. 



by Elizabeth Harrison, published by the Sigma Publishing Company, Chicago. Used 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



301 



its companion and learn of its secrets and revel in 
its beauty ! 

Show Nature's Colors to Your Child 

If a child is so fortunate as to live in close con- 
tact with nature, and has free access to the out- 
of-door world, it is an easy matter to call his at- 
tention to the various aspects of the sky, to teach 
him to observe the exquisite tones of gray in the 
storm cloud, and the deep blue of a summer day, 
as well as the more striking beauties of the sun- 
set and sunrise ; the stars of a summer evening 
will appeal to his young soul as no words can 
hope to do. It is a well-known fact that quiet 
moonlight often soothes a fretful infant. 

Children delight, when once their attention has 
been called to it, to watch from day to day the 
yellowing of the branches of the willow, the red- 
dening of the twigs of the sumach, the lighter 
tones of gray on the oak, as Spring approaches ; 
again the slowly changing hues of the hillsides 
and the exquisite tints and shades of the catkins 
and tender young leaves are a never-ending joy. 
Later on, the still richer coloring in the leaves and 
blossoms, as the Summer adds its beauty to "the 
miracle of the year," brings another whole world 
of delight. Then comes Autumn, with its gor- 
geous panorama of golden grains, of purpling 
grapes, of reds and russets, of yellows and 
browns ; even Winter is rich in harmonious color- 
ing. Then, again, the rain gives one tone, the 
sunshine another, and twilight still another, to 
each of these many colors. 

Next in order of purity of color comes the 
study of the plumage of birds, the wings of in- 
sects ; then the hair or fur of animals, and last 
in strength of colors, but not least in beauty. 
Nature offers a great assortment of colors in her 
precious stones and metals; and in minor tones 
of more subdued, though no less beautiful colors, 
her marbles, agates, carnelians, sandstones, and 
granites repeat the wonderful story of her ex- 
haustless supply of color harmonies. Thus the 
child learns to enjoy the ascending and descend- 
ing scale of colors in the world about hiin. 

Fill the Home with Color 

The nursery walls should, if possible, be of 
some warm, cheerful tint. It is far more impor- 
tant that these ever-present, silent teachers, the 
walls of the room, shall speak of love and har- 
mony and cheerfulness than that the crib shall 
be made of brass, or the pillows be trimmed with 
lace, or the baby carriage be lined with silk. Of 
course, such belongings as rugs and curtains and 
the like should harmonize with the walls. There 
are now so many cheap, pretty textile fabrics that 



scarcely any mother is excusable for surrounding 
her child with ugly, crude, or dingy colors. 

There is as true an art in properly clothing a 
child as in carving a statue. There is as true 
an art in furnishing a living room as in building 
a cathedral. It is but a difference in degree when 
results are looked at. Someone has called the 
great paintings, statues, and cathedrals of the 
world "the autobiographies of great souls." May 
we not with equal truthfulness call an harmo- 
nious, well-arranged home "the autobiography of 
a loving heart"? And upon no one thing does 
the beauty and harmony of home appointments 
depend so much as upon the right use of color. 

Water Colors Among the Playthings 

Many mothers do not know the amount of 
pleasure and growth that comes to a child by the 
free use of good water-color paints. A child of 
three or four years may easily be taught not to 
waste his colors and may be given only three 
cakes of pure paint, carmine (red), gamboge 
(yellow), and Prussian blue. Out of these he 
can make almost every shade and tone of color, 
and will soon revel in reproducing the colors of 
all the objects about him, thereby training his eye 
to see and his heart to feel color, just as the ear 
of a child is trained to rejoice in harmonious 
sounds -by being allowed the right use of a piano. 

Color-Play in the Nursery 

The beautiful coloring which comes from the 
sunlight shining through the autumn-tinted leaves 
of the forest may be brought to any home, for a 
short time at least, by the simple device of fas- 
tening well-pressed colored leaves to the window 
glas's by means of slender slips of tissue paper. 
Sometimes, when artistically arranged, the effect 
is that of a costly stained-glass window. A clear 
glass paper-weight placed on a sunshiny window- 
sill of the children's play-room will throw each 
morning a sparkling shower of pure rainbow col- 
ors upon the walls and floor, much to the delight 
of the children. 

Color is a Free, Beautiful Gift 

Every earnest mother may not have it in her 
power to give her child a knowledge of and a 
love for noble and inspiring music, but she can 
give to him a perception of and a love for beau- 
tiful color, no matter how limited her circum- 
stances nor how far removed from the centers of 
culture her home may be. 

We can not fill a child's life too full of keen 
enjoyments, if they are of the right kind. And 
this love of color, so accessible and so easily im- 



302 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



parted, furnishes hi-m with clean, health iiil rec- 
reation during all his after life, for when once 
acquired it is never lost. For it seems to be one 
of the native languages of the soul, by means of 
which the great heart-throbs of the big outside 
world are felt by the heart within the child, just 
as tears and smiles and tones of the voice are 
understood by all children. 

I have seen children's faces grow radiant over 
the colors brought out by the wetting of some 
common pebbles gathered from a neighboring 
gravel pit; and a joy beyond words may be 
awakened by the gathering of a handful of au- 



tumn leaves. Why should we fill their young 
lives with coarse and sensual pleasures, such as 
fashionable children's parties, visits to exciting 
theaters, cheap and tawdry toys, when they are 
so easily satisfied by the beauty and the marvels 
of Nature's colors? 

"The infinite soul of humanity," says John 
Ruskin, "with its divine worship of self-abnega- 
tion, has no counterpart in all Nature equal to 
the service which color renders to the rest of 
the world. How it glorifies and uplifts the com- 
monest objects !" No wonder that he has called 
color the type and symbol of Love ! 



SUGGESTIONS FOR COLOR-PLAY 

BY 

THE EDITORS 

"Tzvilight's in the corners, the tivilight and the fire. 
As the knights come riding, each attended by his squire: 
And you hear the flutter as the silken, pennons flit. 
Hear a trumpet fanfare, and you long to folloiv it. 
Where broivn-eyed princesses bend from high embattled toilers. 
Where in wondrous gardens flame the wondrous Wishing Flozvers." 

^Patrick R. Chalmers. 



Mankind has always been an incurable fire-wor- 
shiper.* Once perhaps his was the worship of 
fear, when the flame, untamed, rushed across his 
crops, burned his home, or drove him to shelter. 
But there is a later, a gentler adoration, the wor- 
ship of fire controlled and imprisoned. 

This love of the domesticated fire, fire tamed 
and friendly, accounts for many things. It ex- 
plains why a campfire, seen across a lake at night, 
or the light in the home window, looks so exceed- 
ingly cozy. There is a familiar remark to the 
effect that "Nobody has a right to poke the fire 
but the master of the house." This harks back 
to the passion for mastering, taming this element. 
It explains why children love to play with 
matches. Patterson Dubois once wrote quite a 
pathetic little story, which he entitled "The Fire 
Builders," telling how a father once quarreled 
with his little boy, who insisted on getting grimy 



• "In the home interior it is commonly some bit of bright 
light, especially when it is in movement, which tirst charms 
the eye of the novice; the dancing fire-flame, for example, 
the play of the sunlight on a bit of glass or a gilded frame, the 
great globe of the lamp just created. In some cases it is a 
patch of bright color or a gay pattern on the motlier's dress 
which calls forth a full vocal welcome in the shape of baby 
'talking.' In the out-of-door scene, too, it is the glitter of 
the running water, or a meadow all white with daisies, which 
captivates the glance. Light, the symbol of life's joy, seems 
to be the first language in which the spirit of beauty speaks 
to a child, 

A feeling for the charm of color comes distinctly later. 
The first pleasure from colored toys and pictures is hardly 
distinguishable from the welcome of the glad light, the de- 
light in mere brightness." — James Sully, LL.D. 



while assisting to light the furnace. Of course, 
that little boy died, but ever since then the author 
has allowed his other children to enjoy this lux- 
ury. And, rightly, he advises all other fathers 
to do the same. Indeed, to be promoted to be 
official fire-lighter for a household has, no doubt, 
prevented many a youngster from growing up to 
commit arson. 

Everybody remembers that happy household in 
Edinburgh of which Stevenson sang, where 

"We are very lucky, with a lamp before the door. 
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many 

more; 
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with 

light, 
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night !" 

How natural the aspiration of that same child: 

"I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm 
to do, 
O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the 
lamps with you." 

Fireplace the House Altar 

That shrewd student of human nature, St. 
James, remarked once that the human tongue is 
a fire that no man can tame. I wonder if he ever 
sat with his children in front of lighted coals. 
For fire not only is tamed, but it is itself a tamer. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



303 



It has such magic that no one can keep his eyes 
off it. It softens the mood of all present. It 
causes the children to relax muscles and tempers, 
forget to tease each other, long to listen to gen- 
tle fairy stories, and to accept the most direct 
moral advice without flinching. It creates mem- 
ories of the sort that can never afterward be 
forgotten. 

It is not hard to sympathize with those Friends, 
called Quakers, who erect no altars, but who go 
into their meeting-houses and sit, mostly in si- 
lence, and together beside an open fire think of 
God. 

Here is a suggestion for a perpetual device for 
peaceable child-training. Build your home al^out 
an open fire. In Summer, the campfire. Perpetu- 
ally the fireplace. It may have to be fed with 
oil or gas or coal, instead of wood. But it is the 
true family altar. 

In her "Alemoirs of a Child," Annie Steger 
Winston recalls a certain white plaster tower of 
her childhood, "something like an un-Leaning 
Tower of Pisa, rather more than a foot high and 
with rows upon rows of windows, through which 
the light would shine when one placed inside a 
lighted candle. That made its fascination. See- 
ing it so lighted, it was impossible not to think 
of it as furnished and inhabited; as full of life, 
festivity, and elegance." 

Taming Fire 

Another recollection of such an outshining of 
light from within came from colored Japanese 
lanterns or, even more, from home-made, candle- 
lit pasteboard boxes, fantastically cut out and 
lined with brilliant-hued tissue paper. "There 
was joy in the thought," she says, "as one carried 
them around after dusk in one's hand, that one 
was, in that deliciously careless way, carrying fire 
in paper. One would have also a vague feeling 
that fire itself had somehow grown tame and 
friendly." 

The device of hanging Japanese lanterns along 
the porch from rubber bands instead of cords, so 
that they would dance as well as sway, gave the 
children in one household a delightful sensation 
of being surrounded by living fires. 

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey tells of a mother who, 
as the last and prettiest touch for her little 
daughter's birthday candle, planned to light for 
her the birthday cake. The children had all been 
assembled in a darkened room. Quietly the doors 
were opened into the dining-room, where the 
table, loaded with food and favors, could be seen 
under a single light. Then, in the center of the 
table, the birthday candles were silently lighted 
one by one. As they shone in their fairylike 



splendor the little girls clapped their hands, and 
one of them spontaneously began to sing softly, 
"Nearer, my God, to Thee." 

Dr. C. Hanford Henderson calls attention to 
the fact that a candle, wherever it is put, makes 
the place an altar, whether it be upon a table, be- 
side a bed, or in a window. 

Simplicities of Light 

"How little I myself really need when people 
leave me alone," said Walter Pater once. "Even 
a few tufts of half-dead leaves, changing color 
in the quiet of a room that has but light and 
shadow in it ; these, for a susceptible mind, might 
well do duty for all the glory of Augustus." 

"Put a flower in a glass on her mantelpiece," 
says Ernest Rhys, "and put a candle then below 
it, so that it casts a shadow on the wall. Out of 
the play of light and shade on a common wall the 
child gets at the secret of fantasy. It may be a 
door, or a window, or a street lamp, or a star 
reflected in a puddle. Any light will do to find 
the light." 

Shadows, also, are as potent as, and are more 
magical than, light. 

"You need not stint yourself of shadows," Alice 
Meynell says. "It needs but four candles to make 
a hanging Oriental ball play the most buoyant 
jugglery overhead. Two lamps make of one 
palm branch a symmetrical counterchange of 
shadows, and here two palm branches close with 
one another in shadow, their arches flowing to- 
gether and their paler grays darkening. It is 
hard that there are many who prefer a 'repeating 
pattern.' " 

Few people have ever noticed the color and the 
progression of shadows. Ask almost anybody of 
what color shadows are and he will answer, 
"Black." Whereas, there are no black shadows, 
except on the moon. It was a good many cen- 
turies before painters discovered that fact at all, 
and it is only a generation ago that Monet and 
the scientific impressionists called attention to the 
fact that shadows contain the complementary 
colors to what is seen in the adjacent sunlight. 
The length of sunrise shadows, the difference 
between shadows and reflections, the special qual- 
ity of shadows under the moonlight, these are 
all observations not likely to be made by chil- 
dren unless they are directed. 

Mrs. Alice Meynell seems to think that dusk 
brings children some faint revival of their prime- 
val inheritance of excitement. She says : "When 
late twilight comes, there comes also the punctual 
wildness. The children will run and pursue, and 
laugh for the mere movement — it does so jog their 



304 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



spirits. What remembrance does this imply of 
the hunt, what of the predatory dark ?" 

The Transforming Power of Light 

Children often do not notice until directed to 
do so what light does to a landscape. This sen- 
tence of Walter Pater's is familiar: "A sudden 
light transforms a trivia! thing, a weather vane, a 
windmill, a winnowing flail, ithe dust in the barn 
door: a moment — and the thing has vanished; but 
it leaves a relish behind it. a longing that the 
accident may happen again." 

One household made a New Year's resolution 
to enjoy together a year of sunrises. Each mem- 
ber agreed to rise in time to witness every sun- 
rise of the year, and the arrangement was made 
to make daily notes of what was observed. Need- 
less to say, the result had a moral as well as an 
esthetic influence. 

In Stevenson's well-known reminiscence of 
"The Lantern-bearers," the boys who used to 
carry tin bull's-eye lanterns under their topcoats, 
we get a glimpse of the way light and mystery and 
adventure conjoined to give an unusual pleasure. 
Fishermen, burglars, the police, suggested the 
play. "But take it for all in all, the pleasure of 
the thing was substantive; and to be a boy with 
a bull's-eye lantern under his topcoat was good 
enough for us. . . . The essence of this bliss was 
to walk by yourself in the dark night, the slide 
shut, the topcoat buttoned, not a ray escaping, 
whether to conduct your footsteps or to make 
your glory public — a mere pillar of darkness in 
the dark; and all the while, deep down in the 
privacy of your fool's heart, to know you had 
a bull's eye at your belt, and to exult and sing 
over the knowledge." 

Then, of course, there must be the irrepressible 
Scot's moral, "Life from without may seem but 
a rude mound of mud: there will still be some 
golden chamber at the heart of it, in which he 
dwells delighted; and for as dark as his path- 
way seems to the observer, he will have some kind 
of bull's-eye at his belt." 

Moderns Have an Enriched Color-Sense 

Probably we moderns are capable of the en- 
joyment of more varied tints and shades of color 
than were men before us. It has been noticed 
that the only color distinctly mentioned in the 
"Iliad" is red, and possibly yellow. It has been 
thought that the primary colors were the only 
ones noticed by the ancients. The use of color 
in English poetry is comparatively recent. To 
Wordsworth the sky was merely blue and the 
grass green. Little children are early sensitive 



to the primary colors, but respond late to the 
secondary ones, such as purple and gray. 

"In parts of Georgia and South Carolina," 
William Wells Newell says, "as soon as a group 
of girls are fairly out of the house for a morn- 
ing's play, one suddenly points the finger at a 
companion with the exclamation, 'Green!' The 
child so accosted must then produce some frag- 
ment of verdure, the leaf of a tree, a blade of 
grass, etc., from the apparel, or else pay forfeit 
to the first after the manner of 'philopena.' It 
is rarely, 'therefore, that a child will go abroad 
without a bit of 'green'; the practice almost 
amounting to a superstition. The object of each 
is to make the rest believe that the required piece 
of verdure has been forgotten, and yet to keep it 
at hand. Sometimes it is drawn from the shoe, 
or carried in the brooch, or in the garter. Nurses 
find in the pockets or in the lining of garments 
all manner of fragments which have served this 
purpose." 

This, and other games of color-matching, helps 
explain the charm of treasure-strove. The broken 
bright shards of pottery, shining shells, things 
that are transparent or that have luster or glitter 
that we pick up, all these call to have their stories 
told or retold. "Una Mary's" narrative is full 
of such incidents. A walnut shell that opened, 
colored tiles, a Persian rug, certain bright stones, 
bits of china, evoked her fancy and even her 
adoration. In her sacred tree and upon her 
garden altar this lonely, untaught worshiper 
sought and found the Divine. 

Hers and other experiences suggest how close 
vivid sense-experiences of color and smell are in 
early childhood to the deep springs of wonder. 
Prisms, kaleidoscopes, a paper-weight with its 
mysteriously inclosed snowstorm, and old laces 
and brasses are among the objects that recall to 
some of us strangely beautiful and even holy rec- 
ollections and imaginings. 

Color-Play in the Home 

Let us realize how we may transform the dull 
and homely things in the house by the mere magic 
of color. 

Sealing-wax may be used to change the sim- 
plest pieces of glass and chinaware into attractive 
vases. 

Very common furniture may be made distin- 
guished by the use of red china paint or glossy 
black. 

A dull kitchen may be caused to shine by bring- 
ing out and setting up our stock of ruddy copper 
kettles, white enameled sheet iron, and aluminum 
ware. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



30s 



In the dining-room cluster the lights upon the 
table, by candles if not otherwise, because the 
folks are the center of the picture. Keep other 
lights away from the firelight, because the fire- 
place, the household altar, is the center of this 
picture. For the charm of shadows have no other 
illumination in the room than the fireplace. The 
library needs little color but the massed reds and 
greens of the books on the shelves, cleverly ar- 
ranged as a sort of tapestry. A bright red quill 



in the inkstand will carry this tone into the cen- 
ter of the room. 

If you frame your own pictures, try making the 
mats out of silk and satin remnants, strips of 
birch-bark, sheets of cartridge paper, pieces of 
gilt. White mats make holes in the walls. 

Countless ways will suggest themselves to 
our readers by which even small children may 
cooperate in these homely but beautiful tasks of 
color-enrichment. 



THE MUSIC NEEDS OF THE KINDERGARTEN* 



BY 



CALVIN B. CADY 



The right of the child to be well born is not more 
true, not more essential, than his right to be well 
nourished. 

Good judgment in respect to the choice of ma- 
terial for thought is vital, since, after all is said, 
it is not the teacher, but the kind and quality of 
the mental nourishment we give to the child, that 
is the real cultural influence. Pure and nourish- 
ing food is as essential to mental as to bodily 
growth. 

In the development of a cultured language we 
see how vital is the influence of the thought and 
language with which the child comes in contact 
at home. When you meet a young child with a 
cultured language it is always the product pri- 
marily of the high character and quality of the 
ideas that are in common circulation in the fam- 
ily and school, and this must hold true, there- 
fore, in an equal degree in awakening to conscious 
activity the latent germ of music intellection, the 
development of conscious music-thinking, expe- 
rience, appreciation, and cultured judgment. 

In respect to music, the need, therefore, is for 
a higher type of music material ; for songs of finer 
quality ; for pure music of intrinsic and esthetic 
value. Happily, there is a widespread awakening 
to this need, and a real effort to meet it. Some 
years ago Miss Susan Blow recognized the fact 
that the music in Froebel's "Mother Play" was 
quite impossible for parents, teachers, or chil- 
dren, and she selected and published a number 
of songs deemed suitable for modern use. But 
her proposed reform did not go far enough, be- 
oause it did not start from the basis of a practical 
knowledge of the music-education of the child, 
and a just conception of the part the kindergarten 
should play in its realization. Besides, the preva- 



lent notion of music as an adjunct — important, 
to be sure — of the program fiction, played too 
large a part in the choice of material. 

The Music Should Be for Music's Sake, Not 
for a Program 

The question, therefore, is: In this general 
stage of the child's consciousness, when wonder- 
worlds within and without begin to dawn upon 
him and awaken intense desires and interest, shall 
his first glimpse of the wonder-world of music 
be primarily song-material adjusted to the various 
experiences involved in the day's program? Shall 
it not rather be the function of the kindergarten, 
as of every school, of every music-teacher, to 
choose material which shall center the child's 
interest, power of grasp, assimilation, enjoyment 
and expression in music itself; to open a new 
world of beauty to the child's mind and heart ; to 
entice him to enter, to appropriate, and to enjoy 
its fruits, through mental and spiritual assimila- 
tion ; to treasure in memory, and to find one 
more worthy incentive for that self-expression 
which is essential to individual growth and the 
service of humanity? 

Taking this conception as the ideal to be at- 
tained, what, in brief, are the specific objects 
which shall determine the songs and the purs 
music to be used? 

Taking for granted that we are all agreed that 
songs are the most primary material for our pur- 
pose, three primal needs must be considered. 

Songs to Sing to Children 

I. Above all others I would put the need for 
songs to be sung for the children. 

These songs have a twofold purpose: (a) to 



* Used with the author's permission. Read before the International Kindergarten Union. 



3o6 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



shed sunshine and shower upon the dormant, siib- 
conscious germ of music-apprehension, and (&) 
to awaken, if may be, some degree of conscious 
appreciation and enjoyment through incitement to 
active participation in the singing. 

Would that our hygienic lawmakers were wise 
enough to inject into the minds of mothers a little 
of that milk of human motherhood, love which 
would bring back the old-fashioned bedtime cus- 
tom of taking the children into their arms and 
lulling them to slumber with song. 

Would that more mothers to-day sang into their 
children's minds and hearts at least a few of the 
host of melodies great in their childlike simplicity, 
pure beauty, and depth of meaning. Songs for 
this purpose should be chosen with reference 
to intrinsic musical beauty, especially melodic 
beauty, though the children may understand and 
appreciate little, if any, of the poetic thought. 
For the vital purpose is to touch the latent power 
of music-perception and appreciation with the 
fructifying warmth of music itself; to awaken 
and stir to active participation in the esthetic and 
spiritual nourishment of truly great melodies — 
melodies immortal by reason of a simplicity and 
beauty which young and old can apprehend, en- 
joy, and treasure in memory. 

For this purpose it is not necessary that all 
songs should be completely rendered. Here and 
there are to be found beautiful strains in songs 
which, in their entirety, may not appeal to the 
child. For instance, what could be more effective 
in waking the latent power of musical apprecia- 
tion than the first two strains of "The Linden 
Tree," by Schubert? In these strains are to be 
found a strength, a simplicity, a beauty, and a 
tenderness which can not fail to appeal to the 
child-heart of every age. Such strains should 
also be included in this repertoire. 

For cultural work, so large is the number of 
available songs, one is at a loss to choose even 
for illustration, but the following, taken at ran- 
dom from the song literature of different nations, 
are pertinent to our purpose. Among German 
songs there is the "Little Dustman," glorified by 
Brahms, and a rare "Christmas Song," by Peter 
Cornelius. From France, "II etait une bergere." 
"The Shepherdess," and "Winds of Evening." 
Known to all is the tender old Welsh lyric, "All 
Through the Night," and the still more wonder- 
ful Irish gem, "O Spirit of the Summertime." 

Nor should "Sweet Afton," from Scotland be 
forgotten, nor "Where the Bee Sucks," by that 
good old English musician, Dr. Arne — a melody 
too fine to be omitted. From our own land, 
"Suwanee River" no doubt comes to mind; but 
I wish to call attention to a group of songs, "Song 



Vignettes," from the pen of the late Gcrritt 
Smith, than which nothing finer has been brought 
forth by any of the previously mentioned writers 
of songs for children. It is necessary to cite only 
two songs, "Rain Song" and "Peace at Night," 
to reveal the general quality of the collection. 

It is not to be inferred from the emphasis laid 
uprn melody in bringing to birth and nurturing 
a healthy music-consciousness and experience, 
that the art of poetry in song and the poetic spirit 
of the child are to be neglected. Far from that. 
To spur into active life and nurture poetic im- 
agination is the high emprise of song. The poetic 
spirit of the child, therefore, should also be well 
born and nourished. 

To accomplish this, besides the songs chosen 
primarily for the intrinsic beauty of melody, 
which require no help from poetry to carry a_ 
message to the child-heart, many more should be 
sung in which the poetry assumes importance, and 
is simple enough to awaken interest, develop 
imagination and active appreciation of the poetic 
spirit of song. 

Songs to Help Music-Thinking 

2. The second function of song, for which we 
need proper material, is to stimulate active melo- 
dic tliinking and expression, and to furnish op- 
portunity for that appreciation and culture which 
can only result from the interpretative study of 
song. 

If the latent germ of music-thought were always 
easily awakened, or if perceptual and construc- 
tive poetic and music imagination were univer- 
sally strong and active, the problem of choosing 
material for nourishment would be measura- 
bly simple ; but material must be chosen to meet 
the needs of the children of sluggish or weak 
musical ability. For such children, and they are 
numerous, ,there is a necessity for short phrase- 
songs in which the melodic, as well as the phonic, 
elements are extremely simple, and present the 
least number of impediments to quick grasp, and 
to free vocal expression. 

Songs for Larger Musical Culture 

3. After the problem of melodic and poetic con- 
ception and voice have been measurably solved, 
the choice of songs has, for its third purpose, 
purely cultural development through interpreta- 
tive study and appreciation of many songs, cover- 
ing a wide field of poetic and musical imagination. 
As an extremely valuable and essential by-product, 
such intensive study will result in a memory 
richly stored with songs of intrinsic beauty, and 
poetic and spiritual significance. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



307 



To summarize: Song material falls into two 
general groups; 

(i) Songs for children to hear. 

(2) Songs for children to sing. 

The latter group subdivides into songs which 
may serve (a) to awaken conceptual thought, and 
to discover pure voice; (b) songs for cultural 
purposes — to develop musical thought and appre- 
ciation through interpretative singing; and (c) 
songs to be treasured in memory. 

The practical question that arises is, where is 
this rnaterial to be found, and how may it be col- 
lected so that it shall be of service. 

The field from which to glean is wide. Gems 
are to be found in all the folk-song literature of 
the world — Slavonic, Scandinavian, Gallic, Celtic, 
British, Latin, Teutonic. Indian, American, and 
American Indian. Again, there is the domain 
of songs written for children ; the art songs which 
have sprung from the minds and hearts of the 
song-poets of many nations — Brahms, Schumann, 
Reinecke, Taubert, Grieg, Schubert, Cornelius, 
and in our own country, in particular, Gerritt 
Smith. 

Beautiful Music Ought to Be Matched by 
Beautiful Words 

This leads to another point to be noted. In our 
song books there are many beautiful and useful 
melodies associated with poetry inane in thought 
and puerile in language and rhythm; also many 
mismated melodies because of poetry foreign to 
their character. There are also many exquisite 
melodies which should be available, but the poetry 
is utterly unsuited to our children. This latter 
condition obtains in many very beautiful French 
songs. To be sure, many such melodies have been 
rescued and supplied with poetry adapted to the 
thought of our children. But there are many 
more of equal, if not greater, value which the 
children should know and sing. For example, 
from the Weckerlin collection, "Popular Songs of 
France," might be cited a number of such melo- 
dies which our children might learn with profit. 
These melodies are of rare quality, but the poetry 
of the songs is impossible for our children. Mr. 
Ralph Seymour, of Chicago, has published one 
of the most beautiful of these melodies, substitu- 
ting for the French Noel. "Chantons, je vous en 
prie," a stirring medieval Christmas hymn which 
is in perfect accord with the spirit of the melody. 

Martin Luther believed that "the devil should 
not have all the good tunes," and forthwith meta- 
morphosed popular ditties into good German cho- 
rals; and Handel, "that grand old robber," did not 
hesitate to make use of love songs as themes of 
great choruses in the "Messiah." There is every 



reason, therefore, and precedent, if such were 
needed, for appropriating to the children's use 
melodies, wherever found, that are culturally 
adapted to their needs. With a poetic setting be- 
fitting its simplicity and tender grace, that ex- 
quisite thirteenth century love song which Marion 
sings to her lover in Adam de la Hale's Opera 
Comique, "Robin et Marion," might emerge from 
its obscurity and be added to the gems our chil- 
dren could learn to sing, love, and cherish. 

On the other hand, there are many worthy 
poems sadly mismated, or without adequate musi- 
cal interpretation. One such rare gem is Victor 
Hugo's poem : 

"Good-night, good-night. 
Far flies the light; 
But still God's love 
Shall flame above. 
Making all bright; 
Good-night, good-night." 

As far as I know, this poem is associated with 
no melody which adequately voices its inner spirit. 
But it is worthy of music which shall enhance the 
beauty of its imagery, strengthen its spiritual im- 
port, and add to the musical and poetic treasures 
of childhood's memories. 

In this connection, and out of practical expe- 
rience, I should like to suggest that such poems 
might be sung in their native language. French 
songs, if the poetic thought has cultural value for 
our children, offer splendid opportunities for the 
initial learning of the language in a most practical 
way. Not only may fine diction be obtained, but 
the children approach the language from the right 
angle — that of art-perception and esthetic enjoy- 
ment, for they are privileged to revel in the beau- 
ties of the two arts of poetic imagery, and the 
rhythm and melody of oral sounds. 

Such material it is not necessary to manufac- 
ture, and we need no dry technical bones to offer 
to the children. Fine melodic material may be 
found in abundance in phrases taken from folk- 
song literature. The old French cradle song, 
"Dor, dor, I'enfant, dor," or the more familiar 
German folklied, "Kukuk. Kukuk, ruft aus dem 
Wald," are both excellent because of the sim- 
plicity of the melodic phrases available for 
phrase-songs and the sing-able qualities of the 
vowel sounds of the language. Besides, they are 
of intrinsic merit musically. 

A word, now, concerning the practical work of 
investigating and selecting the desired songs. 

It must be understood, first of all, that no one 
person is prepared to meet all the demands. How- 
ever clever and cultured poetically and musically 
one may be : however skilled, through long prac- 



^oS 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



tice, in the development of the child mind and 
familiarity with the specific needs of the kin- 
dergarten, no one individual is_ wise enough to 
do full justice to the subject. It demands the 



combined wisdom of cultured musicians who have 
had practical experience in the musical education 
of the little child, and trained kindergartners of 
poetic and musical taste and culture.* 



MUSIC FOR THE EARLY YEARS t 



MARY E. PENNELE 



The following suggestions, I hope, will prove 
helpful to mothers and teachers of young children 
in developing an appreciation and love for music. 
The World War made us realize, as never 
before, that music is the most universal of all 
languages. The soldiers did not understand the 
words of the war-songs of other countries, but 
they did not fail to understand and respond to 
the meaning expressed in them. During the war, 
music was one of the most effective means used 
for promoting unity of purpose and intercourse 
among the peoples of all countries, as it was 
among the soldiers. The Community Choruses, 
formed in all parts of the United States, played 
no incotisiderable part in the success of our war 
activities. The development of a love and under- 
standing of music will be one of the greatest safe- 
guards to our national life in the future. As 
leisure hours increase, a definite provision for the 
spending of these must be made. A knowledge 
and love for music therefore should be developed 
in all children through the home and the school. 

Music is a Language 

Music is the universal language of childhood 
as well as that of adults. "Sound and movement 
are language to the child long before he has com- 
mand of formal speech." He should be early in- 
troduced, then, to this means of expression. 

Music, as a language, should be learned just 
as the mother-tongue is learned. Let us see, then, 
how the child learns to speak. A mother con- 
stantly talks to her baby, although she knows that 
only tones and movements will be her answer. 
This, fortunately, does not deter her from talk- 
ing to her little one, for if it did, speech would 
be long delayed. 

The mother talks about everyday things that 
the child can see or what they are going to do 

* The selection of music for, little children in the sixth volume of the Bookshelf was based upon a special report of 
the Music Committee of the International Kindergarten Union, and represents the best recent thought as to what is best 
and most worthy for the purpose. 

t Here, in a nutshell, is a real little textbook of musical appreciation for the helping of little children, written by one 
of the most successful kindergarten sui)ervisors in this country. Material is here for months of work by the mother. 
Note how simple and sensible are the suggestions. Miss Pennell brings out the neglected possibilities of the talking 
machine and of even humbler musical instruments, and shows how the mother who is not an expert performer herself 
may give lier children tlie priceless possession of musical enthusiasm and expression. — The Editors. 



together. In this way words come to have a defi- 
nite meaning to the child. Soon the child's tones 
and meaningless gurglings begin to sound like 
words. At once the mother encourages the child 
by repeating the words correctly and getting him 
to try again. 

Can you imagine a mother giving her child 
printed words to read before he has learned to 
talk? And yet that is what is often attempted 
with the musical language. The child is given 
symbols of this tone language before it has any 
meaning to him, therefore a distaste for music 
results. We must remember that "the elements 
of the tone-language must be learned through the 
ear by imitation, just as the mother-tongue is 
learned." 

We do not attempt to have a child begin to try 
to interpret the printed page until he has a vo- 
cabulary of many words. So, also, a child should 
be able to interpret many selections and have a 
musical vocabulary of many songs before he is 
given musical symbols to interpret. 

After years of experience with children, I feel 
that the value of any method of teaching vocal 
or instrumental music which emphasizes the de- 
velopment of technical skill rather than apprecia- 
tion, interpretation, and creative ability, is to be 
questioned. Results can unquestionably be ob- 
tained, but they are without sufficient foundation 
to endure. Symbols are barren unless they are 
"carriers of meaning." The following sugges- 
tions are designed to create a love for and ability 
to understand music. With this foundation laid 
in the first seven years of a child's life, the de- 
velopment of technical skill can safely follow. 

Create a Musical Environment 

The early musical education of children should 
be begun by having the children hear good music. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



309 



If we wish children to be able to think and ex- 
press themselves through this medium, then we 
must surround them with a musical environment. 
The use of records makes this possible for moth- 
ers and teachers who cannot play or sing. Only 
records of the best music should be chosen. A 
musical environment can be created in the follow- 
ing ways : 

I. Form the habit of singing and playing to 
your children. 

Many musicians rarely, if ever, sing to their 
children. Sing to them rather than say "Good- 
morning." Sing to them while you are about 
your work, not formulated songs but snatches of 
melody. 




How do you do this morn - ing 1 

Have regular times during the day when you 
sing or play formulated selections to them. Be 
careful, at such times, to choose your selections 
wisely. Select them to fit the occasion. At bed- 
time do not play dance music, but music which 
will create a quiet, restful mood. In the morning 
quiet music will not be appropriate, as a child 
awakens full of activity. There is a song and 
appropriate music for all the experiences in a 
child's life, if we only take the trouble to find 
them. 



i^ 



E85ES=£ 



^ 



^^^ 



What are you do - ing, my ba - by ? 

Lullabies are among the first songs to be sung 
to the child. Nature songs, Mother Goose melo- 
dies. Hymns, Patriotic Songs, Songs for Festi- 
vals and Holidays, Songs of Human Activities, 
and Finger-Plays should all be used at appropriate 
times. Many of these songs have been sung by 
artists and records made. 

RECORDS OF LULLABIES AND QUIET 
MUSIC 

(Note. — Play the selections rather than the rec- 
ords if you are a musician. The records, unless 
otherwise indicated, are Victor.*) 

The Sandman 64220 

Berceuse from "locelyn" 3S1SS 

Cradle Song 17254 

Song Without Words 3S1SS 

* Miss Pennell, as well as others of our writers, recom- 
mends the talking machine as a valualjle aid to music in the 
home. Mrs. Leonard calls attention to the fact that all 
machines, even of the same make, are not of even quality, 
and that the tone of the phonograph to be purchased should 
be as carefully tested as if it were a piano. — The Editors. 



Traumcrei 64197 

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod 64219 

Sleep, Little Baby of Mine I 1721' 

Slumber Sea J 

Lullaby (Brahms) .' 17181 

First Movement, Moonlight Sonata 3S426 

Humoresque 17463 

Consolation 18119 

Evening Star 16813 

Melody in F 45096 or 87250 

Priere Nocturne 70027 

Evening Chimes 18018 

Sweet and Low 47% 

Slumber Song 17513 

Slumber Boat 45075 

All Through the Night 74100 

LULLABIES TO BE SUNG TO CHILDREN 

Little Birdie, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 

liiiger). 
Rocking Baby, Small Songs for Small Singers 

(Neidlinger). 
The Moon is Playing Hide and Seek, Small Songs 

for Small Singers (Neidlinger). 
Cradle Song, Play Songs (Bentley). 
The Dream Man, The Song Primer (Bentley). 
Cradle Song, Song Stories (Hill). 
Baby's Lullaby, Songs and Games (Jenks). 
Lullaby, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Hush-a-By-Baby, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
The Moon Boat, Songs of the Child's World (Pouls- 

son). 

MUSIC FOR JOYOUS MOODS 

See List of Music for Rhythms 

MOTHER GOOSE SONGS 

Baa baa. Black Sheep and others 17937 

Mother Goose No. 1 17004 

Mother Goose No. 2 35225 

Mother Goose No. 3 and 4 18076 

(See "Mother Goose Songs to be Taught to Children") 

SONGS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES 

Sleighing Song 17869 

Little Shoemaker | 170^7 

The Blacksmith J ''^■" 

Blowing Bubbles ] 

Pit a Pat \ 17596 

The Sailor J 

Boat Song 17210 

The Blacksmith, Songs of the Child's World (Gay- 

nor). 
The Little Shoemaker, Songs of the Child's World 

(Gaynor). 
Washing and Ironing, Song Stories (Hill). 
The Blacksmith's Song, Song Stories (Hill). 
The Blacksmith's Song, Songs and Games (Jenks). 

(See "List of Songs to be Taught to Children") 

NATURE SONGS 

Pit a Pat and others 17596 

Blue Bird and others 17776 

The Bobolink 17686 

Bunny 17776 



310 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

Canary and Thrush Duet 4S0S8 Thanksgiving Day, Play Songs (Bentley). 

Daffodils 18015 Thanksgiving Day, Song Stories ( Hill ) . 

Rain Song 17004 (See "Songs to be Taught to Children") 

Good-night, Prettv Stars 17282 

The Wishing Stone 17210 mwrc-D dt avc 

Jack in the Pulpit 17719 FINGER-PLAYS 

The Woodpecker and others 17686 i,, r,- tt c- j /- ^ t , -. 

Oriole's Nest and Wind Song 17177 ^^ ?'-?f,°'\?''"'f-'- ^""^, ^"^ ."^^T' (J'^"'^^)- ' 

Violets 17625 ^^^e L.ttle Me.i^ I-mger-Plays ( Poulsson). 

Ihe Squirrel, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 

The First Flying Lesson, Small Songs for Small The Counting Lesson, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 

Singers (Neidlinger). Mrs. Pussy's Dinner, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 

Mr. Frog, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- How the Corn Grew, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 

linger). (See "Finger-Plays to be Taught to Children") 

Mr. Squirrel, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 
linger). HYMNS 

The Snow Man, Small Songs for Small Singers 

(Neidlinger). God's Care of .^.11 Things, Song Stories (Hill). 

Jack Frost, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- (See "Songs to be Taught to Children") 
linger). 

Who Has Seen the Wind? Play Songs (Bentley). crM.Tr-c 

Winter Song, Play Songs (Bentley). PAlKlUliC bUNGS 

Butterflies are Flying. Play Songs (Bentley) . ' ^ S ..^ ^ j ^ Children") 

Jack Frost, Play Songs (Bentley). v & & / 

Sunshine, Play Songs (Bentley). 

Little Jack Frost, First Year in Music (Hollis MISCELLANEOUS 
Dann). 

Moon Song, Song Stories (Hill). Tick-Tock, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 

The Blue Bird, Songs and Games (Jenks). T-u'T'"^b cue t c ,i c- 

Over the Bare Hills Far Away, Songs and Games ^he See Saw, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 

(Tenks) linger). 

Pussy Willow, Songs and Games (Jenks). ^^pple Gray, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann) 

Little lack Frost, Songs and Games ( lenks). Jo Baby Land, First Year m Music Hoi is Dann). 

Tiny Little Snowflakes, Songs and Games (Jenks). Boating Song, Songs for the Child s World (Pouls- 

The New Moon, Songs and Games (Jenks). „,*?"v c- c- , ,,-,•,,.,,•,, /t, , 

Twinkle. Twinkle, Little Star, Songs and Games Sleighing Song, Songs for the Child s W orld (Pouls- 

( Jenks) ^°"-*- 

The Bird's Nest, Songs of the Child's World (Gay- (See "Songs to be Taught to Children") 

nor). 

Jack Frost, Songs of the Child's World (Gaynor). Have Children Create Their Own Sonajs 
Little Yellow Dandelion, Songs of the Child's World 

(Gaynor). Have children sing to you in response to your 

Jhe Violet, Songs of the Child's World (Gaynor). greeting, or have them sing the answer to the 

The Tulips, Songs of the Child s World (Gaynor). .- ■ i j ^i, 'ru t_ u 

questions you have asked them. 1 hey should 

SONGS FOR FESTIVALS AND HOLIDAYS early learn to express their thoughts in song. 

It is of the utmost importance that you use a 

Around the Christmas Tree 17869 ,j j^j gofj head-tone in singing to children and 

Holy Night 17842 . ' u . uu *C ^ tl 

Christmas Carols 31873 ^^ve them respond with the same tone. The 

moment they are allowed to sing loudly the qual- 

Christmas Night, Song Stories (Hill). it ^f t^ng jg ruined and the voice becomes 

A Wonderful Tree, Songs and Games (Jenks). . , 

Christmas Song, Songs of the Child's World (Gay- stra nea. _ 

nor). Illustrations: 




Child. 



m^^mi 



--t=r. 



Good morn ■ 



ing. 



my dear. Good mom - ing, dear moth 



m 



Question. 



u 



Response. 



i 



^ 



What are you do - ing, my 



-V — 
ba - 



IE 



^ 



± 



byl 



I'm play - ing with my dolls. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



311 



Teach Good Songs to Children 

Children need not only to create their own 
songs but to know simple songs that trained mu- 
sicians have composed. The latter will give chil- 
dren a standard for their own original songs and 
he the means of developing them along right lines. 
The formulated songs should supplement, but not 
take the place of, songs created by the children 
themselves. 

In choosing songs to teach children, remember 
that "The selection of real things and interests of 
the daily life about which to sing is, undoubtedly, 
the keynote to the restoration of song as a natural, 
rather than a studio art." These interests may 
be in relation to Nature, festivals, human activi- 
ties and events, poetry and stories. 

The songs should not only be about experiences 
with which children are familiar and interested, 
but they should be expressed in language which 
the child can readily understand and reproduce. 

The songs should also be short, as a rule, in- 
creasing in length as a child gains musical power. 
When longer songs are used they should involve 
a good deal of repetition, both in melody and 
words. The pitch of songs should be high, as 
children's voices range from E to F sharp. 

The accompaniments to songs should be simple. 
Some authorities say that singing with piano- 
accompaniment should be the exception rather 
than the rule. 

Too many songs should not be taught. A few 
songs well learned are better than many only 
partially learned. The children should sing only 
a few songs at a time, lest their voices become 



strained. Individual, rather than chorus singing 
should be stressed. 

What Method Should Be Used? 

.\ possible way : 

1. Introduce the idea of the story or song. 
This introduction should be brief and to the 
point, otherwise interest and appreciation 
will be lost rather than created. 

2. Give the child something to listen for as 
you sing, or some motive for learning the 
song.* 

3. Sing the song to them several times, being 
careful to 

(1) Have the right pitch. 

(2) Have the right quality of voice. 
This will be determined by the spirit 
of the song. 

(3) Phrase well. 

(4) Enunciate distinctly but naturally. 

4. Have them answer the question you asked 
them in regard to the song. 

5. Be sure that the children understand and ap- 
preciate the meaning of all words used in 
the song, otherwise they will be unable to 
sing with expression. The words, however, 
should not be repeated by the children. 

6. Sing the first phrase and then have the 
children individually, or as a group, sing it. 
Then sing the second phrase, having the chil- 
dren repeat this. Put the two phrases to- 
gether and have the children sing these. 
Use this method until all the phrases have 
been developed and the children are able to 
sing the whole song. 




PRETTY LITTLE BLUEBIRD 
ores. 



dim. 



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"Pret-ty lit - tie Blue - bird, why 



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It 



do you go? Comeback, comeback to me:" "I 



i^ 



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m 



i 



dim. 



IP 



=t= 



go," sang the bird, 
ores, i: 



^Z 



he flew on high, "To see 



if ray col - or match - es the sky." 
I dim. 



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Ei 



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X 



* Saturate them with the song first. Then let them teli what is in it. Have the mastery of every song grow out of 
the child's experience with it. — M. S. L. 



312 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Illustration of This Method 

What spring birds have you seen? Which is 
the prettiest one? I saw a bluebird when I was 
riding yesterday. When we got near him he flew 
way up in the sky. Do you ever wonder where 
the birds are going, and why? Listen and find 
out what this blue bird told a child who asked 
him. Sing "Pretty Little Bluebird." 

Where did the bluebird go ? Why was he flying 
on high ? What did he mean by, "To see if my 
color matches the sky"? Do you think it did? 
Now, after I sing what the little child asked the 
bluebird. I want you to see if you can sing it 
to me. 

See if you can sing that part. (Child sings.) 

"Pretty little Bluebird, why do you go? 
Come back, come back to me :" 

Listen while I sing what the bird answered. 

"I go," sang the bird, as he flew on high, 
"To see if my color matches the sky." 

Who can sing that to me? (Child sings.) 
Now let me sing the whole song to you, and 
then I want you to sing it for me. Perhaps to- 
morrow you can sing it to Father. 

What Singing Habits Should Be Begun 
at Once 

1. Wait for the prelude to be finished. 

2. Get the right pitch by having the key note 
sounded on piano, or by the teacher. It is 
sometimes well for the children to sound 
this before beginning the song. 

3. Begin on the first note. 

4. Avoid shouting, sing with soft, light, head 
tones. 

5. Pronounce the words correctly and distinctly. 

6. Have a good sitting or standing position for 
singing. 

7. Get children to feel the need of improving 
a place in the song which they do not sing 
well, in order to make it tell a better story. 

How can you help a monotone? 

1. Never let a child feel that he can not sing 
and never let him be embarrassed by other 
children. 

2. Whenever possible, do not let him sing with 
other children, as he influences their tones 
and he can not hear the correct tone because 
of the sound of his own voice. 

3. Let him stand near the piano when singing. 



4. The most helpful thing is to give tone plays 
to monotones. (See Tone Plays.) 

5. When working individually with children 
get one who pitches the tone lower to think 
a higher tone. 

How can you get good tones? 

1. One of the best ways to get good tones is 
to have children listen to good singing. This 
is made possible through the records of the 
world's famous artists which the coming of 
the phonograph has made possible for all. 
The ideal voice for children to hear and imi- 
tate is the lyric soprano. Listening to violin 
and flute records is equally helpful. 

(See suggested list of records.) 

2. Require children to use good flexible tones 
in speaking. In the child's mind all con- 
scious discrimination between the singing 
and speaking voice should be eliminated. 

3. Clean and open nasal passages are of first 
importance. 

4. A good sitting or standing position is 'abso- 
lutely necessary to get good tones. (But 
don't let the matter of position become too 
formal or self-conscious. — M. S. L.) 

5. Tone plays are helpful. 

(a) Let children play they are your echo. 
Take the notes, such as singing "00," 
then "o" and "ah." Have children imi- 
tate these. 



iiE^^E 



^ 



Sweet ap - pies. 



^ 



Too, too, too. 

(b) Have them match tones by tooting like 

an engine, imitating street calls, various 

kinds of bells and whistles. 
(c). Have them imitate various sounds of 

Nature, such as the wind, bird-calls, 

bees, and calls of animals. 
(d) Have them repeat names of children, 

prolonging the vowel and thus turning it 

into a singing tone. 




Ma 



ry 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



313 



Songs to Be Taught to Little Children 

GREETING SONGS 

Good-Morning to All, Song Stories (Hill). 
Good-Morning Song, Song Stories (Hill). 
Good-Morning to You, First Year in Music (HoUis 

Dann). 
Good-Morning Song, Songs and Games for Little 

Ones (Jenks). 

HYMNS 

God's Works, Song Stories (Hill). 

Thanks for Daily Blessings, Song Stories (Hill). 

Church Bells, Song Stories (Hill). 

Morning Hymn, Songs and Games for Little Ones 

(Jenks). 
The Morning Bright, Songs and Games for Little 

Ones (Jenks). 
A Song of Thanks, Holiday Songs (Poulsson). 
Thank Thee, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
God Sends His Bright Spring Sun, Song Echoes 

from Child Land (Jenks). 

LULLABIES 

Cradle Song, The Song Primer (Bentley). 
The Sandman, Holiday Songs (Poulsson). 
The Birdie's Song, Songs and Games for Little Ones 

( jenks). 
Rock the Baby, Small Songs for Small Singers 

(Neidlinger). 
Lovely Moon, Song Stories (Hill). 
The Moon Boat, Songs of the Child's World (Gay- 

nor). 

NATURE SONGS 

Come, Little Leaves, Songs and Games for Little 
Ones (Jenks). 

The Song of the Rain, Songs and Games for Little 
Ones (Jenks). 

Jack Frost, Play Songs (Bentley). 

Sunshine, Play Songs (Bentley). 

Bobby Redbreast, Play Songs (Bentley). 

Waiting to Grow, Song Echoes from Child Land 
(Jenks). 

Snowdrops and Violets, Song Echoes from Child 
Land (Jenks). 

Autumn Leaves, Song Echoes from Child Land 
(Jenks). 

The Blue-Bird, Small Songs for Small Singers 
(Neidlinger). 

The Bunny, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 
linger). 

Tiddlely Winks and Tiddlely Wee, Small Songs for 
Small Singers (Neidlinger). 

Mr. Frog, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 
linger). 

Mr. Duck and Mr. Turkey, Small Songs for Small 
Singers (Neidlinger). 

The Snow Man, Small Songs for Small Singers 
(Neidlinger). 

Jack Frost, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

Snow Flakes, Song Stories (Hill). 

Fly, Little Birdies, Song Stories (Hill). 

The White World, First Year in Music (Hollis 
Dann ) . 

Snowflakes, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 

Garden Song, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 



Daffy-Down-Dilly, First Year in Music (Hollis 

Dann). 
The Seed Baby, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Buttercups, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Winter Time, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
The Moon and I, First Year in Music (Hollis 

Dann). 
Dandelion, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Jack Frost, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Feeding Birds, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Flakes of Snow, First Year in Music ( HoUis Dann). 
The Robin, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
The Dandelion. First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Daisies, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Barnyard Song. Holiday Songs (Poulsson). 
Birds in Autumn, Holiday Songs (Poulsson). 

SONGS FOR FESTIV.\LS AND HOLIDAYS 

Santa Claus, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

Santa Claus, Finger Plays (Poulsson). 

The First Christmas, Songs and Games for Little 

Ones (Jenks). 
Shine Out. Oh Blessed Star, Songs and Games for 

Little Ones (Jenks). 
Carol, Oh Carol, Songs and Games for Little Ones 

(Jenks). 
At Easter Time, Songs and Games for Little Ones 

(Jenks). 
Jolly Santa Claus, First Year in Music (Hollis 

Dann). 
Old English Carol, First Year in Music (Hollis 

Dann). 
My Valentine, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Jack o' Lantern, Play Songs (Bentley). 
Hallowe'en, Play Songs (Bentley). 
When You Send a Valentine, Holiday Songs (Pouls- 
son). 
Nature's Easter Story, Song Stories (Hill). 

MOTHER-GOOSE SONGS 

Hickory, Dickory Dock, First Year in Music (Hol- 
lis Dann). 
Little Bo-Peep. First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 
Tack and Jill, Play Songs (Bentley). 
Sing a Song of Sixpence, Play Songs (Bentley). 
Mother-Goose Collection (Ethel Crown inshield). 

SONGS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES 

The Blacksmith, Songs of the Child's World (Gay- 

nor). 
The Shoemaker, Songs of the Child's World (Gay- 

nor). 
The Blacksmith, Songs and Games for Little Ones 

(Jenks). 
The Carpenter. Play Songs (Bentley). 
The Soldier Song, Play Songs (Bentley). 
The Little Cobbler, First Year in Music (Hollis 

Dann). 
The Cobbler, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 

PATRIOTIC SONGS 

America. 

Forward March, Boys, Play Songs (Bentley). 

We March Like Soldiers, Songs of the Child's 
World (Poulsson). 

Marching Song, Songs of the Child's World (Pouls- 
son). 



314 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



FINGER-PLAYS 

Ball for Baby. Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 
Good Mother Hen, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 
Making Bread, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 
Making Butter, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 
The Little Plant, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 
Santa Glaus, Finger-Plays (Poulsson). 
Mother's Knives and Forks, Songs of the Child's 
World (Gaynor). 



MISCELLANEOUS 

Mv Old Dan, The Song Primer (Bentley). Teachers' 
Book. 

The Zoo. The Song Primer (Bentley). 

Teddy Bear. The Song Primer (Bentley). 

The Clock, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

Honk, Honk, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

The Train, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

The Fiddle, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

Once I Got Into a Boat, The Song Primer (Bentley). 

The Bells, Play Songs (Alys Bentley). 

The Bear, Play Songs (Alys Bentley). 

The Kitten and the Bow-wow, Small Songs for 
Small Singers (Neidlinger). 

The See-Saw, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 
linger). 

Tick Tock, Small Songs for Small Singers (Neid- 
linger). 

Doll Song, Holiday Songs (Poulsson). 

Hop, Hop, Hop, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 

Dapple Gray, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 

The Two Cuckoos, First Year in Music (Hollis 
Dann). 

The Apple Man, First Year in Music (Hollis Dann). 

Winter Coasting, First Year in Music (Hollis 
Dann). 

Appreciation and Interpretation of 
Music 

Children should not only be surrounded by a 
musical atmosphere, but they should be helped in 
the appreciation and interpretation of music. The 
following ways have been found' helpful : 

I. Have children interpret music through move- 
ment. 

"The simpler and more primitive form of mu- 
sical expression finds its vent in rhythmical 
action." 

This rhythmical interpretation of music is also 
one of the best means of furthering the physical 
development of children, as it exercises the large, 
fundamental muscles, which crave exercise at this 
period. 

The children should listen to the music first 
and then, when the selection is played the second 
time, be ready to do what the music suggests to 
them. In this way they create their own rhythms. 
This method has secured very much better re- 
sults than the imitation and dictation of steps to 
be used with certain selections. 
■ The music at first should be very simple and 



present marked contrasting rhythmic moods, such 
as a slow-moving waltz and a gavotte, or a march 
and a polonaise. Later, music requiring finer 
discrimination can be used. One piece will often 
require very different movements. The minuet 
has two distinct themes. 

Method I : 

(a) Have the children listen to a selection, 
such as a gavotte. 

(b) Let them do what the music makes them 
feel like doing. 

(c) Have children notice good movements 
used by other little ones. If necessary 
show them appropriate movements. See 
that the children's ability to interpret 
music grows. 

(d) Follow the gavotte with a slow waltz 
• and see if children change their move- 
ments. 

3iIethod 2: 

(a) Have the children listen to a selection 
such as "The Dagger Dance," or "In the 
Hall of the Mountain King." 

(b) Let them interpret the music through 
movements. 

(c) Tell them something about the meaning 
of the selection and let them interpret 
the music again. 

Care should be taken that the movements are 
really expressive of the music and that they do 
not become stereotyped. Pictures showing people 
dancing have been found to be helpful as a means 
of creating ideas of good movements. Formu- 
lated rhythms also furnish a standard for good 
movements. 

Method I : 

(a) Play a selection and have the children 
do what the music makes them feel like 
doing. 

(b) Call them to you and show them a pic- 
ture of people dancing, using movements 
which would be appropriate for the 
music you are using. 

(c) Let the children interpret the same 
music again. 

Method 2: 

(a) Show the children a picture of people 
dancing. (From the Perry pictures or 
a magazine.) 

(b) Have them describe the kind of music 
the people in the picture must have been 
hearing. 

(c) Have such music played and see if they 
can make as pretty movements. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



31S 



Method 3: 

(a) Have children look at a picture of peo- 
ple dancing. 

(b) Have two selections played, one appro- 
priate to the movements shown in the 
picture, one inappropriate. 

(c) Let children see if they can select the 
appropriate music. 

(rf) Let them interpret this music. 

PICTURES THAT COULD BE USED IN 
THIS WAY 

1. "Dance of the Nymohs," Corot. 

2. "Apollo and the Muses." 

3. "Ring Around the Rosy," Jessie Willcox Smith. 

4. Pictures of Esthetic Dancing, often found in 

current magazines. 

Method 4 : 

(a) Play a skipping, running, tiptoe, or 
tramping theme, and let children inter- 
pret it. 

(&) Show the children what movement is 
adapted to this music and how it should 
he done. 

(c) Use the same music for this movement 
day after day, working definitely for the 
development in the quality and not 
variety of movement. 

Method 5: 

(a) Have the children interpret the music 
that is being played. 

(b) If good movements do not result, play 
one of the formulated rhythms described 
in Method 4, which calls for the same 
quality of action and have children re- 
spond to this. 

(f) Let children reinterpret the music and 
see if better movements result. 

RECORDS FOR RHYTHMS 

("C" indicates Columbia Records) 

Le Cygne 64046 

Dancing Song 17719 

Am Springbriinnen 70031 

Gavotte 17917 

Gavotte 74164 

Marche Romaine 17186 

Spring Song 16516 

Dances from "Henry VIII" 35530 

Traumerei 64197 

Minuet 17917 

Spinning Song 35195 

Capricietto 64204 

In the Hall of the Mountain 'King, Grieg. . .A5807C 

Children's Toy March, Currie A1295C 

Marche Militaire, Schubert A5302C 

Humoresque 74180 

William Tell Overture 35120 and 35121 

K.N. — 22 



Dagger Dance 70049 

Ride of the Valkyries 35369 

The Butterfly, Grieg 60048 

Scarf Dance 35022 

Gavotte 74164 

Minuet Waltz 64076 

2. Ask Questions that will Stimulate Interest in 
the Music. 

Method I : 

Have children listen to several pieces and 
then ask them which they like best and why. 
Children also enjoy knowing the composer's 
name and being able to identify his picture. 

POSSIBLE SELECTIONS 

Dance of the Fairies 16048 

Voice of the Woods 74395 

The Brooklet 17532 

Marche Militaire 35493 

Method 2: 

Have children listen to the music and tell 
you what they hear. A hint may be given as 
to what will be heard. 

POSSIBLE SELECTIONS 

Song of a Nightingale 64161 

Song of a Nightingale 4S057 

Song of a Thrush 45057 

Spring Voices 16835 

The Mocking Bird 16969 

Arrival of the Robins 16094 

Song of a Sprosser 45058 

Canary and Thrush Duct 45058 

Dance of the Song Birds 17521 

Birds of the Forest 16835 

Hunt in the Black Forest 35324 

Santa Claus Patrol A2374C 

Santa Claus Workshop A919C 

In the Clock Store 35324 

Babes in Toyland 55054 

Forge in the Forest 17231 

Children's Symphony A129S 

Children's Toy March A129S 

Method 3: 

Tell the children that two composers have 
written music suggested by the same theme 
and have them decide which selection they 
like the better. Sometimes tell the children 
what the theme is about; sometimes have 
them tell you what they think it is. 

POSSIBLE SELECTIONS 

Spring. Grieg 5844C 

Spring, Mendelssohn 6020C 

The Butterfly, Chopin 64706 

The Butterfly. Grieg 35448 

The Cradle Song, Godard 35155 

The Cradle Song, Hausen 17254 

The Morning, Peer Gvnt Suite, Grieg 35597 

At Dawn, William Tefl Overture, Rossini . . . A5765C 



3i6 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

3. Show Pictures that Suggest the Same Mood Spring "I 

as the Music. Dance of the Nymphs [ 16516, 60046, 17216 

Show two or three pictures full of action but t''°in° Son""" ^'"'" 

of very different type, and have children choose Spirit of 76 ) A';302C 

appropriate music for each ; later the pictures need Marche Militaire ) 

not present such marked contrast in moods and 

more than two can be used at a time. 4- Use Poems and Nursery Rhymes to Aid in 

,, , , the Interpretation of Music. 

Method I : ' ' 

(a) Show two pictures, such as "Rock-a-by- Method i: 

Baby," by Jessie Willcox Smith; and (<») Tell two or three nursery rhymes or 

"Prince Balthazar," by Velasquez; "A poems such as, "Hickory, Dickory Dock," 

Gust of Wind," by Corot; and "The a"d "Bye, Baby Bunting." 

Avenue of Trees," by Corot. (*) Play music fitting the mood of one of 

(b) Have the children tell you what they see "^^ rhymes. 

in the pictures ^'■^ Have children decide which rhyme the 

(c) Have them listen while music appro- music fits, 
priate for each picture is played. Method 2: 

(d) Have one of the selections played again (a) Tell two nursery rhymes or poems, 
and have the chddren tell you which pic- (^,) pjay music fitting the mood of one. 
ture IS 'being interpreted. (V) Have children decide which poem the 

Method 2: music interprets. 

(a) Show two pictures as in Method I. M tl 1 5 • 
{h) Have the children imitate the activity 

represented in each picture. (°) "^'^'^ °"« nursery rhyme or poem, 

(c) Have them listen while music appropri- ^^^ ^'^^ ^^^° selections, one appropriate and 

ate for each picture is played. , , °"^ inappropriate. ^ _ 

,,,, TT r ii 1 .• ,1 • l"^) Let children select appropriate music for 

{a) Have one or the selections played again th 

and have the children represent the pic- 

ture that is being interpreted. 

,, ,, . a H ILLUSTRATIONS 
Method 3: 

(a) Show a picture to the children, such as Jlif'^^ Humming-Top ) I445O 

•'AC .. c \\j- 1 » u /^ ^ I he Top, Gillette \ 

A Gu.st of Wind, by Corot. Washington Post March A5^3SC 

{b) Tell them the story that the picture 

seems to tell you. 5- Have Children Recognize the Tones of Dif- 

(c) Tell them that music tells you stories fercnt Instruments. 

also and that you are going to play two At first use a record where a single instrument 

selections, one of which tells you the P'ays, such as in "Traumerei," while children lis- 

same story as this picture and the other ten to the music. The selection may be an old 

a very different story. favorite. It may be well to let them interpret the 

(d) Play two selections, such as "The rnusic through some medium, then tell them that 
Storm," and "The Butterflv." ^ ^''°''" '^ making this beautiful music. Play 

(£•) Have them decide which selection tells \&^'". ^"^ ^f ^^^ children listen to the sound of 

the same story as the picture. the violin. Use other records in which the violin 

IS played and see if children recognize the instru- 

POSSIBLE SELECTIONS AND *"<^"'- Use this same method with other instru- 

APPROPRIATE PICTURES ments. 

Later use a record in which two or more in- 

A Hunting Scene ) 35324 struments are played and see if children can 

A Hunt m the HIack Forest \ ., .., ., iL, . ,. „ , ,, ■ , 

Bye-Baby-Bye, Jessie Willcox Smith ) 35495 'dentify them. The violin, flute, cello, piano and 

Moonlight Sonata j " xylophone should all be familiar to the children. 

Pictures of Spring ) \6?,iS Sometimes pictures of instruments, shown 

Spring Voices j after a selection in which they have been plaved, 

A (just 01 Wind, Corot ( ^^^'>(\ -n 1 1 • ^i •.■ 1 ^^ j-o- ■' 

The Storm ( •' P '" *^ recognition of the different tones 

The Swan I 64046 produced by various instruments. The Victor 

The Swan J ' Company have published large charts in color, 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



317 



picturing the different instruments, 
prove most helpful. 



RECORDS THAT COULD BE USED TO 
IDENTIFY INSTRUMENTS 

The Bee (X'iolin) 64076 

Gavotte (\'iolin) 64140 

Traumerei (Violin) 64197 

At the Brook (Violin) 17600 

Gavotte (Violin) 74164 

Minuet Waltz (Violin) 64076 

Capricietto (Violin) 64204 

Distant Voices (Flute) 60029 

\\'ind Among the Trees (Flute) 70026 

Andalouse (Flute with piano ace.) 60027 

Sing. Sweet Bird (Violin, Flute) 16242 

Am Springbriinnen (Harp) 70031 

Priere (Harp) 7(X)27 

Concerto for Harp and Flute 70029 

Cradle Song ('Cello) 17254 

Spring Song ('Cello) 16516 

Berceuse from "Jocelyn" ('Cello) 35155 

Evening Chimes (X'iolin, 'Cello, Harp with 

Bells) 18018 

Humoresque (Violin, 'Cello, Harp) 17454 

The Mocking Bird (Xylophone) 16969 

Gretchen's Dream Waltz (Xylophone) 17050 

William Tell Fantasie (Xylophone) 17120 

Gavotte ( Bells and Xvlophone) 17917 

Bolero in D Major (Piano) 18396 

Minuet (Piano) 16474 

Harmonious Blacksmith (Piano) 71041 

At the Brook (Violin, 'Cello. Piano) 17600 

Christmas Bells (Violin and Harp) 919C 

Instruments of the Orchestra 35236 

6. Have the Children Use Siinl>le Musical In- 
struments to Accompany the Piano-Sclectiois or 
the Records. 

Blocks of wood covered with sandpaper, drums, 
and tambourines (to be beaten) can be used with 
forJe (loud) music: triangles, flageolets, hum- 
mers, bells, tuberphones, and tambourines (to be 
shaken) for the pianissimo (soft) music. 

The children should have a chance to experi- 
ment with these instrtnnents and find what kind 
of music can be made with them. Then ask them 
with what kind of music they think they should 
use the different instruments. 

At first use music with which only one type of 
instruments, the loud or the lighter, should be 
played. Later use music with marked contrasting 
movements, with which, at the appropriate time, 
both types of instruments can be played. After 
the children have gained considerable ability, 
play selections which do not present such marked 
contrasts and call also for the modulation of the 
different instruments used. 

Method i : 

I. Play the selection, or the portion of it to 
be used, to the children, having them 



These would listen to find out what instruments should 

be used to accompany this music. 

2. Have them tell you their decision. 

3. Let them use the instruments with the se- 
lection. 

4. L^se this same selection many times so that 
the children may become able to keep 
perfect time with the music. 

Method 2: 

1. Play a selection with which both types of 
instruments should be used at different 
times, while the children listen to see 
when the different types of instruments 
should be played. 

2. Play the selection again and let the chil- 
dren see if they can play their instru- 
ments at the right time. 

3. Practice this same selection often until the 
children attain a fair degree of skill in 
the control of the instruments and in 
ability to play them at the proper time. 

Method 3 : This method should not be attempted 
until the children have gained considerable skill 
in music. 

1. Develop a selection as in Method i. 

2. Play the selection and let the children 
listen and see if the music is equally 
loud or soft throughout the piece. 

3. Let them accompany the selection with 
the appropriate instruments, trying to 
modulate the tones of their instruments 
to correspond to the music. 



SELECTIONS TO BE USED WITH LOUD 

INSTRUMENTS 

March from "Tannhauser." 

Marche Militaire (Schubert). 

Soldiers' Chorus (Gounod). 

.'Xnvil Chorus, "II Trovatore" (Verdi). 

Militarv March (Gounod), First Year in Music 

(Hollis Dann). 
Soldiers' March (Schumann), First Year in Music 

(Hollis Dann). 
Marche Militaire, Music for the Child World 

(Hofer). 
Melody in F (Rubinstein). 
Carmen, "Toreador Song." 
March from "Faust" (Gounod). 
The Orgy, "Les Huguenots." 

SELECTIONS FOR THE LIGHTER INSTRU- 
MENTS 
Carmen : 

Melody in F (Rubinstein). 
Heart Bowed Down. "Bohemian Girl." 
Farewell. Summer, "Martha." 
Grande Valse de Concert (Mattel). 
Rondo (Mozart). 
Sonata (Moszkowski). 



3i8 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



SELECTIONS FOR BOTH TYPES OF IN- 
STRUMENTS 
II Trovatore : 

Melody of Love* (Engelman). 
Hand in Hand, Arnold's Collection of Rhythms. 
Cadets' March. Arnold's Collection of Rhythms. 
Review March, Arnold's Collection of Rhythms. 
Air du Roi Louis XHI, Music for the Child World 

(Hofer). 
In the Gypsy Camp, Family Music Book (Behr). 

All of the suggestions given in this article can 
be used by a mother with one or more children, 
and by the teacher with a larger group. No at- 
tempt has been made to teach the technique of 
music for the reasons previously given. The 
author does believe, however, that the best and 
safest foundation for later technical training has 
been laid. 

Music is one of the many bonds that should 
unite a mother and her children. It can be used 
by the mother as one of the best means of dis- 
pelling and creating moods. A nervous child 
can be quieted, an angry child soothed, and an 
unhappy child made joyous by the right kind of 
music. 

The attention of the educational world is being 
called to the need of instilling in children a love 



for the right kind of music. Few people can 
create music, but nearly all now have the oppor- 
tunity to listen to and enjoy the masterpieces of 
music. To be able to listen and enjoy these mas- 
terpieces is more necessary in the education of 
the youth of our land than the ability to read 
foreign languages. It will prove one of the 
greatest safeguards to the youth in time of temp- 
tation. It will be the means of keeping the 
young at home in the evening or attending the 
right kind of entertainments. Dr. Woodrow 
Wilson says, "The man who disparages music as 
a luxury and non-essential is doing the nation an 
injury. Music now, more than ever before, is a 
present national need." 

Mothers should remem'ber that this musical 
education should be begun long before the child 
enters school. Teachers should not be so inter- 
ested in teaching the three R's that the time for 
music is shortened. Dr. P. P. Claxton, United 
States Commissioner of Education, says: "Sooner 
or later we shall not only recognize the cultural 
value of music, we shall also begin to under- 
stand that after the beginning of reading, writing, 
aritlimetic and geometry, music has greater prac- 
tical value than any other subject." 



"The supreme mission of mechanical music is its direct 
educational mission. If people can only hear enough good 
music when they are young, without having it forcibly fed to 
them, they are almost sure to care for it when they come to 
years of discretion."— Robert Haven Schauffler. 



"1 want liim to know from his earliest years something 
about the development of music and the God-given geniuses 
who have flooded our world with glorious melodies and 
helped make life beautiful. I want him to love in his heart 
the composer whose composition he may be studying, be- 
cause I feel sure he will understand and play it so much 
better. I also encourage and show my appreciation of his 
childish efforts by taking him to musical treats. I want liim 
to feel and know what a truly wonderful and beautiful art 
music is." — Therese Auerbach. 




CHILDREN AND MUSIC 



SOME PLAY-DEVICES IN BEGINNING MUSIC* 



MRS. ELIZABETH HUBBARD BONSALL 



Like most mothers. Mrs. Clark wanted her daugh- 
ter Helen to be "musical" ; that is, to appreciate 
music and to be able to play the piano or some 
otiier instrument for the pleasure it would give 
herself and others. And so when Helen was 
eleven years old she began to study music and 
her mother thought she was starting early. But 
when Helen returned from school with lessons 
to do at home, Mrs. Clark had difficulty in keep- 
ing her indoors any longer to practice at the 
piano. Helen would keep putting off her prac- 
ticing time, and frequently fifteen or twenty min- 
utes were wasted in arguing with her mother 
about it. The early lessons in music, with so 
many exercises, were dull and uninteresting, when 
Helen wanted pretty pieces to play; so after 
struggling along for a year or two, the music- 
lessons were given up. Now, at nineteen, Helen 
is blaming her mother because she did not make 
her practice. And Helen is only one of hundreds. 

Mrs. Clark thought that she was giving Helen 
an early start at eleven years, but if she had 
started much earlier she would not have had 
some of the problems which confronted her later. 
At five years, when Helen was beginning to count 
and to learn her letters, her mother could have 
taught her a great deal by kindergarten methods, 
by spending a few minutes regularly every day, 
and Helen would have learned, v.ithout realizing 
it, much of the elementary work so tiresome when 
she was older. Then at seven or eight years, 
when she really started to study music, she would 
have been sufficiently far advanced so that the 
lessons would have been interesting, and there 
would have been no arguments or tears in order 
to secure the time for practicing. 

It is really astonishing how much can be learned 
by little games and devices. Nearly all the mu- 
sical terms can be taught, the keyboard under- 
stood, the ear trained to observe differences in 
rhythm, pitch and expression; the fingers con- 
trolled to a certain extent and considerable prog- 
ress can be made with reading music written in 
large type so that there can be no strain on the 
eyes. And incidentally if a mother has had some 
ability to play herself, in the past, it gives her a 



fine opportunity to work up her own music at 
the same time that she is taking care of her 
children. Practically all of the following sug- 
gestions may be used with only one child, the 
mother and child doing the things together. 
However, they can be made a bit more inter- 
esting if three or four children can be learning 
together. 

Rhythm 

Rhythm seems to be the most fundamental ele- 
ment with which to start. Long before five years 
of age, most children have gathered some idea of 
it from nursery rhymes, such as "Seesaw, Mar- 
jorie Daw," so that the idea is not entirely new. 
Place the children in a line and march very 
slowly, keeping in step and counting "one, two; 
one, two," with a decided accent on the one. 
The arms can be made to help in keeping time 
by clapping the hands together when saying "one" 
and placing them down at the sides when saying 
"two." After this is learned perfectly, march 
faster and then slower, seeing if the children 
themselves can detect the change of rhythm. 
Finally play a simple piece on the piano, with two 
beats to the measure, and let the children find 
the rhythm themselves. When the idea of two 
beats seems to be grasped, play three and then 
four beats to the measure, the children listening 
themselves for the rhythm. As they develop, the 
children will love simple rhythmic dances like those 
shown on page 320. 

The first one of Chopin's Preludes, to which a 
minuet step can easily be danced. Let the chil- 
dren stand in couples, side by side, with the in- 
side hands clasped and raised high. Starting with 
the inside foot, take three slow steps forward, and 
then make a deep curtesy, facing slightly away 
from each other. Then starting with the outside 
foot, take three steps, curtesying again, facing 
slightly toward each other. Repeat to the end. 

Polka Step. Dance singly, or with couples fac- 
ing each other. Take a sliding step to the right, 
with right foot, and bring up the left foot beside 
it. Repeat. Then stamp three times, right foot, 
left, right. Then slide with the left foot first, 



* Appreciation and love of music should come first — real saturation. Next, an itrgent desire by the child to play. 
This may, of course, be fostered try the mother. Then, when the background work is done, Mrs. Bonsall's advice as to 
how to teach mechanics is in place; but not before, unless we want to make children hate music later. — M. S. L. 



320 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 




SIMPLE RHYTHMIC DANCES 

I. THE MINUET 



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Btep step bow 



step 



step step bow, 



g 



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bow 



bow 



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bow 



bow 

//. THE POLKA STEP 

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bow. 




Slide, slide 1-2-3 slide.... slide 1-2-3 slide, slide 1-2-3 slide.... slide 1-2-3 



dia.e:onally forward, taking- three short .stamps, 
beginning with the left foot. Repeat to the end. 

The Keyboard 

Then start in with the keyboard. Cut out eight 
little squares and write a C on each. Place the 
first one on middle C and let the children place 
the rest on the other positions of C. Then learn 
the position of G and after that the other notes 
of the scale. We learned them in this order : 
E, F, D, A, and B, making sure that the previous 
ones were mastered before starting in with any 
new ones. After two letters are learned, shuffle 
the squares and let the children draw them, 



= J J = J J J 



<5 = 



J J 



placing them on the correct note. In a surpris- 
ingly short time every note of the scale of C is 
learned. 

Time-Value of Notes 

We have some nice little games for learning 
the time-value of notes. As all children love to 
crayon I let them go over the notes written on 
cards, outlining in bright colors the whole and 
half-notes, and filling in solid the quarter- and 
eighth-notes. Then we cut them out, each note 
in a small square, shuffling them up and taking 
turns in drawing them and placing them in piles 



in front of us. If I drew a quarter-note from 
the pile and someone else had a quarter-note, I 
could take his away, and the next person who 
drew a quarter-note could take both of mine away 
from me. After all the notes are drawn, we count 
to see who has the most piles. 

After the names of the notes are learned in 
this way. we match them up according to time- 
value. For example, I hold up a whole note, and 
each child draws a note from the pile and must 
tell what other note or notes are needed to make 
up the value of the whole note. A child having 
a half-note would need another half or two quar- 
ters. I have written a series of cards showing 
the values of the notes as follows: 

J = ;;;;;;;; 

= ; ; ; ; 

We refer to this series in matching up the notes. 
On large cards I have written another series of 
notes which we learn, counting and tapping them 
on the table, and finally the children can play 
them on the piano as a special reward for having 
learned them. The following series is one which 
we have used : 

|JJJ|JJJ]JJJ|JJJJ|o|JJ| 

3J~J|JJ|JJJ|J-| 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



321 



Music-Symbols 

I have found sewing-cards an attractive way 
of teaching many of the music-symbols. We 
started in with the Sharp. On a stiff piece of 
cardboard I drew the figure and punched the holes 
in it. While the children were sewing upon it 
with bright worsted I told them that a Sharp 
made a note go up just a little bit higher and 



u-- 




K 



• 



o 



when they finished we played on the keyboard the 
sharps of all the notes. I then made more cards, 
writing Ct, Dt, etc., upon them and we placed 
them with our other series of cards containing 
the plain letters. Then we learned the Flat and 
Natural, making cards for them. And a little 
later we made the G clef and five-lined staff. The 
values of the notes can also be learned very 
readily by the children by making sewing cards 
for them also. Sewing the cards as well as 
crayoning them furnishes a double means for 
learning the time-values. 

The Staff 

The best way I have found of becoming fa- 
miliar with the staff is by a music pegboard. I 
bought a small-sized square pegboard with ten 
rows of holes each way and painted narrow lines 
across every other row of holes, making the staff. 
Then we used little colored pegs with rounded 
heads to represent the notes, which could be 
placed either on the lines or spaces. A person 
at all skillful with tools could make a pegboard, 
using a piece of wood about seven inches square 
and boring the rows of holes with red-hot wire. 
The pegs could be made from the good ends of 
used matches cut three-quarters of an inch long, 
and round heads may be formed by dipping one 
end several times in paraffin. 

Learning the names of the lines and spaces 
is the first step. We say the names of the lines 
in unison : E-G-B-D-F. I have these letters 
written on little cards and each child takes one 
and in turn places the peg upon the staff in the 
place indicated by the letter drawn. If it is put 



in the wrong place, the child misses his point; 
and after each child has had several turns, we 
count up to see who has won. Then we learn the 
spaces in the same way. 

The next step is the game of putting the peg 
on the board and finding the corresponding note 
on the piano. One child puts the peg anywhere 
he wishes on the board, the one next to him must 
play that note on the piano. Then the next child 
places the peg and the child following plays the 
note on the piano. 

After the positions of the notes are learned, 
more difficult things can be attempted. Two notes 
may be placed on the pegboard first like this, 



fa J *^ 



then like 
this. 



I 



then this 



m 



letting the children work out the difference for 
themselves. 

A number of principles of Harmony can be 
taught in a simple fashion. If a child can count 



he will love to figure out that 



I 



is a sec- 



ond, 



^^a third, ^^^ fourth, ^1^ 



a fifth, and so on to 



m 



the octave. When 



the children can count these intervals perfectly 

with the pegs, they may be played on the piano. 

Then, by using three pegs, it is easy to show 



that 



m-" 



a chord, because there are three 



notes played above each other in a line, while 
J L JJ* is an arpeggio, 'because the notes of the 



chord are placed one after the other. In teach- 
ing these things, let the children themselves fre- 
quently place the pegs, telling what they have 
made, or correcting one another. 

Training the Fingers 

It is the actual playing at the keyboard that 
makes children feel that they are really studying 
music ; and to encourage them, we begin with 
a simple duet. I place the child's hands on the 
keyboard, with the thumb on C. and the other 
fingers resting lightly, each on the note following. 
Then I ask the child to play the five notes firmly, 
and with the right fingers, one after the other. 
It seems like a simple thing to do, but what strug- 
gles the little ones have to move the proper 



322 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



fingers ! It seems as if all the fingers must move, 
or none. The earnest expression on their faces 
shows their determination, and finally with what 
pride they conquer ! Then the left hand should 
be played, and at last both together. Teach the 
child to count four for each note, and harmonize 
a base like the following: 



hands going in opposite directions. Unless a child 
himself wants to, I think he is apt to become con- 
fused if he tries to play both hands together in 
the same direction. The scales of G, D, E, and A 
are all within the grasp of a very young child, 
if each is thoroughly learned before going on with 
the ne.xt. 



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Children are always so pleased that .they are 
eager for more. Variations can be made by 
playing it in the key of G, and A minor.* 

When the little fingers gain ability to move 
separately, some simple exercises can be given 
to develop control like the following: 



These scales and exercises are splendid for 
teaching control of the finger muscles, -but we 
parents like to feel that our children are getting 
in touch with -beautiful music. It is foolish to 
think that children of five -should -be kept to such 
elementary tunes as "Mary had a Little Lamb," 




How school children detest such exercises, for 
they seem so dull, but the little folks think that 
they are 'beautiful, and are delighted when they 
can play 'them. And scales — I remember how I 
used to dislike to play them — how I would hurry 
on to my pieces, but how my teacher kept me 
working at them till I could finger them correctly. 
But I have known my little daughter of five, of 
her own accord, to work for twenty minutes on 
a new scale, trying to get the fingering so that 
it would be perfect. When she made a mistake, 
instead of giving up in discouragement, back she 
would go to the beginning and start all over again. 
We began with the scale of C, playing the first 
three notes with consecutive fingers, then putting 
the thumb under on F and playing four more 
notes, placing the thumb under on C again, so 
beginning another octave. Then we played the 
left hand, starting with the thumb on C and going 



and other ^fother Goose melodies. These may 
have their place with children of two and three, 
but at five years there are many lovely themes 
of the great composers which they can easily learn 
to play and which they will love more and more 
as they grow older. Write .these themes on large 
sheets, with the staff lines at least half an inch 
apart. 

One of the easiest of these themes is the first 
two measures of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony." 



l±± 



'=^=^ 



i 



It adds to the interest if you tell the children that 
some people think that it represents a knock at 
the door, and you can tap the rhythm with your 
knutkles on the table. 

This accompanying theme of Beethoven's was 



iSE3: 



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1 



down for two octaves. When both hands were 
learned separately, we played them together, the 

* There are many simple duets for teacher and pupil, such 
as the book by Low: "Teacher and Pupil," Bk. I. 



one of the last that he ever wrote, and as he was 
deaf at the time, he never heard it himself. 

Another favorite theme is the "Westminster 
Chimes." Each phrase represents a quarter 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



323 



I St Quarter 



^ 



=*=i: 



I 



2nd Quarter 






^iili 



3rd Quarter 



4th Quarter 




HOUR 



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hour. and finally the clock strikes the hour. Teach 
it phrase by phrase and then let the children strike 
any hour they wish. 



fe 



w^^ 



This lively little phrase by Haydn is full of 
fun. It is part of his "Surprise Symphony," 
which he played one time very softly and then 
suddenly came a crash to awaken everyone who 
had gone to sleep during the performance. 




Here is a little phrase from a Musette of 
Bach's. The lower hand doesn't change, for it 
represents a piece played upon a bagpipe and the 
lower notes are held. 



Si 



This phrase is from Wagner's opera "Parsi- 
fal" and represents the ringing of the church 
bells of Montsalvat. Nearly every mother must 
know of many similar phrases. 

Ear-Training 

Some children are born with a much better 
"ear" for music than others, but any normal child 
can be trained if taken in time. Difference in 
pitch is the first thing with which to work. Let 
the children close their eyes or turn their backs, 
then you play two notes on the piano more than 



an octave apart and ask which is higher. Then 
bring the notes nearer together and finally a 
semitone apart. 

Play the scale of C several times to impress it; 
then play C followed by a note a little above it 
and see if the children can tell what note it is. 

Let the children hum notes and try to find them 
on the piano. 

Then play a simple series and see if the chil- 
dren can plaj' it. 




The ear-training work that the children will 
like the best, and a part which is sadly neglected 
by most music teachers, is to have the children 
recognize the masterpieces of music. Mothers 
have a wonderful opportunity for self-improve- 
ment by this means. I have small mounted pic- 
tures of nearly all the famous composers, and 
when a piece is played, the children select the 
writer's picture and place it upon the piano. It 
is also an aid in impressing the music if the chil- 
dren can act out the spirit of the piece. 

For example, if I play Chopin's "Funeral 
March," after the children have placed the right 
picture on the piano, they place little veils over 
their heads and walk around very slowly with 
bowed heads. If you could catch a glimpse of 
their faces you would see they were smiling, but 
their manner is most serious. 

A Chopin waltz makes them skip around with 
glee, while with Grieg's "Cradle Song" they rock 
their dolls to sleep. At the first note of Gounod's 
"Soldier's Chorus" they take flags and march 
in a most military manner; while with Schu- 
mann's "Traumerei." they lean back in their 
chairs and fall asleep. Chopin's "Butterfly 
Etude" brings them to their feet, fluttering around 
and waving their arms to represent wings, while 



324 



THE homp: kindergarten manual 



Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" sends them skip- 
ping to pick flowers. 

Study of Musical Instruments 

Every musician should be familiar with our 
common musical instruments, such as are used 
in the symphony orchestras, but there are very 
few who are. And right here the paint-brush 
can teach a great deal. Catalogs of musical in- 
struments are easily obtainable, and the pictures 
can be cut out and colored. Also, most large dic- 
tionaries contain pictures of instruments, the out- 
lines of which can be copied easily or traced, 
and the children can fill them in with colors. 
While they are painting, you can speak of the 
three different ways in which music is made. The 
oldest instruments probably were struck, like our 
drums, bells, and cymbals, and are called per- 
cussion instruments. Then there are the wind 
instruments, which are blown, like the bugle, flute, 
cornet, bagpipe, and even whistles. And finally 



ing children are happier themselves and bring 
more happiness to others than ones who do not 
know any songs. And here, as elsewhere, it is 
foolish to think that children should be kept to 
nursery rhymes with insipid tunes. There are 
many lieautiful songs for children written by the 
very best writers. Often motions can be used 
with them which makes them doubly attractive. 

Our little ''good-morning" song is written by 
Haydn, and Tennyson's "Little Flower in t'he 
Crannied Wall," which we often sing, is set to a 
theme from Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony." 
Both of these songs are taken from a valuable 
collection of famous songs for children by Kitty 
Cheatham, called "A Nursery Garland." 

Indian songs and other folk-songs make a very 
strong appeal to children ; there are several rep- 
resenting scenes in the life of the Indians by 
Neidlinger which are particularly attractive to 
children. One portrays a little Indian girl sit- 
ting by a wigwam grinding corn and humming 
a weird little Indian tune, as follows : 



^iS= 




rn. 



i- 



comc the string instruments, played by vibrating 
tight strings of different lengths, such as the vio- 
lin, harp, and guitar. It is surprising how easily 
children grasp the difference when it is made so 
plain, and you can play a little joke on them 
by asking what kind of an instrument the piano 
is. Usually they will answer "struck" or "per- 
cussion." But then take off the front of the 
piano, and when they see the strings inside, of 
their own accord they will change their opinions. 
I let them play a few notes and see how the little 
hammers cause the strings to vibrate. We have 
a toy piano, and I let them compare the two 
instruments and see that the toy piano has no 
strings. As the sounds come directly from strik- 
ing the plates, it is really a percussion instrument. 

Singing 

Though I have not said much about singing so 
far, it forms a most important part of a child's 
life as well as of his musical education. Sing- 



m 



::* 



Another, by the same composer, is the song of 
the Camp-fire Girls and suggests the flickering 
of the flames. 

In singing songs the children enjoy taking turns 
being the conductor and leading the rest. We 
have a little stick for a baton, and all the chil- 
dren watch carefully as our conductor stands on 
a box for a platform and beats two, three, or four 
counts to the measure. It is fine training both for 
the leader and the followers and gives the chil- 
dren some idea of the problems of the orchestra. 
Still more advanced along this line is Haydn's 
"Toy Symphony," written for children with a 
piano accompaniment : we use the minuet sec- 
tion and I divide the children into two groups, 
the owls and the cuckoos. The owls say who-o-oo 
with a rising inflection and the cuckoos make the 
conventional sound. Then I play the piano, 
nodding to each group when its turn comes. The 
children soon learn to watch very intently for 
the signal. 



"Children should not be asked to sing unless they feel. 
With each vital selection, therefore, should go the story, if 
it have one, and those songs that have stories should be 
always preferred." — G. Stanley Hall. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 

THE CANARY 



325 



APPENDIX 

After the children have learned the letter- 
names of the notes they will be helped in ra])id i ijve in 
reading and will much enjoy these playful exer- 
cises of spelling words out on the staff. These And 
are taken by permi*ision from the Introductory 
Grade of "The University Course in Music," 
published by the University Society. They were 
written by Edith Sanford Tillotson. 



MY BUNNY 
Bunny, you were very 
Very: 



today, 

Just because you were not *^'" LL£J f II 

You tried to run away. 
But I caught you at the V" f |> f f^^ 

Of the V- LT r ^ ^^ -patch. 

Bunny -^^^^, don't try to V- J P 



1 — 1. ^^ n 

For 111 y I I quite your match. 
Do not make ^ _ II :^='^^=^ at me, 

I can *J' o | | severe, 
You may ^ | J^ i ^ to run about, 

But I'm too V' p [J ^^ to hear. 
Pink 



eyes may look in vain, 



Safely ^ 



you'll stay, 



Hope is V- p r J pi , so go to 4 [ J" 
You won't ^= 



f 



free to-day. 



—Edith Sanford Tillotson 




in the window, 



the bright garden all day, 



And there till the sunshine has 

And all its soft light 
I sing to the 



I away, 



The vine and the 

And the dew- 
To 

But after the sunset has 
I sit on the 

My 



and the blossom, 
old trees, 
that hangs on the lily 




swing in the breeze. 



;of my swing, 



is moved down to the table, 



And then for my supper I sing. 
They ^ p QJ" g me with seed and with 



■ crumbs. 



As all yellow birds should be 
Then I tuck my head under my feathers. 
For that's howi 



I bird goes to 



- Edith Sanford TdlutMi 

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS 



Birthday Fairy, bring to me. 
Presents fine as fine can 
"V' J I I kitten I can 
birdie in a 





for all my school-books, too, 

with blue, 




A sweet 



Kind fairy, don't be 



I need these things, I do in 



necklace that will shine, 
dolly would be fine,- 
l plead, 




-Edith Sanford Tillotson 



Copyright, 1920, by the National Academy of Music, New York 



HOW TO TELL STORIES 



BY 

MARY L. READ 



For the person who "can not tell a story," as for 
the person who "can not swim," there is one es- 
sential : forget yourself and plunge in. and prac- 
tice until you have gained confidence. 

1. Tell something in which you and the chil- 
dren are interested, and keep at it repeatedly until 
you feel at ease. 

2. Recall stories that interested you at that age. 

3. Tell stories the children themselves ask for, 
refreshing your memory by reading up a standard 
version, or by asking the children to tell it to you. 

4. Study Mother Goose, .^sop, and Bible stories 
as models of the best story-telling. 

5. Live the story as you tell it — see it as pic- 
tured in your own mind. Tell it so vividly that 
the children can play it out afterward. 

6. Use direct speech in telling conversation. 

7. Make your picture vivid by a few descriptive 
words, especially of colors and sounds ; increase 
your vocabulary of adjectives. 

8. Beware of making it too long, especially for 
very little people. 

9. Use perhaps a very few natural gestures, but 



do not try to act it out. Children have not the 
mental ability to hear narrative and see action 
at the same time. 

10. Children love the same story repeated, and 
they want it told the same way, in order to see 
the same pictures; therefore, have your stoi'y 
clear in your mind the first time you tell it. 

11. If you are telling a classic or standard 
story, respect it as it is, just as honestly as you 
would an historic or scientific fact. If you do 
not wish to tell it that way, don't tell it at all, and 
don't tinker it. 

12. Do not try to memorize a story, except 
possibly the conversations. 

13. If a story is clearly told, the child will usu- 
ally absorb and discern the ethical principle in- 
volved, without any necessity on your part to 
obtrusively "point the moral." Sometimes a child 
will draw an erroneous or unexpected inference 
because his judgment is yet immature or his ethi- 
cal experience is elementary or pe;.rverted. Un- 
der such a condition, try to tell another story 
that will concretely clear his thought. 



THE SELECTION OF STORIES FOR KINDERGARTEN 

CHILDREN 

BY 

ANNIE E. MOORE 



"O talcs of ogre, knight, and elf! 
You make a rainboit.' on our shelf. 

Wide store of mirth and magic arts. 
You light the sunshine in our hearts! 

They are the key to ivi::ard wiles. 
The guide-books to enchanted isles. 

The grammars Zi'hcnce we understand 
The tongue that's talked in Fairyland; 

The sum of our inheritance 

Of all the wondrous zvorld's romance." 

■ — St. John Lucas. 



We have available very few records regarding 
the particular stories which seem suited to chil- 
dren of different ages. Tradition and child-study 
both assert with emphasis that children of a cer- 



tain age love fairy stories, but we are helped only 
slightly by this well-established fact. The ques- 
tions of quantity and quality have still to be de- 
cided. Just which fairy stories and which ver- 



326 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



327 



sions of them shall we use? Choice has largely 
depended either on tradition or on the individual 
likes and dislikes of the mother or teacher. 
There is a certain common stock of stories of 
which American children are in possession, and an 
examination of the titles of this list would show 
that they are among the best of the popular folk- 
tales. These are the old stories which satisfied 
the imagination and fed the spirit of the human 
race in its infancy and which are suited to the 
young of all races and all times. 

A long process of natural selection has been 
going on by which the coarse and brutal have 
largely been eliminated and those embodying uni- 
versal truth and appealing to modern standards 
have survived. In the repeated telling and re- 
telling these old tales have also been polished in 
form so that from the standpoint of perfection 
of finish they are well-nigh impossible to imitate. 
"Cinderella," "Sleeping-Beauty," "One-eye. Two- 
eyes, Three-eyes," "Snow-white and Rose-red" 
fulfill perfectly all the requirements of the good 
short story. 

One principle, such as the ethical value, must 
not be allowed to assert itself over all the others, 
such as pure enjoyment, cultivation of taste, re- 
finement of diction, training of imagination, and 
developing power in thinking. 

Don't Select Wholly for the "Moral" 

The exclusive use of stories having a clear 
moral lesson is sure to result in a very narrow 
selection and the elimination of much that is of 
positive value, or the very questionable practice 
of making over and doctoring in accordance with 
a certain prescription until all the original beauty 
and virility of the story are lost. There is evi- 
dence that many kindergartners are dominated 
almost exclusively by the purpose of making the 
story the vehicle of a moral lesson. For what 
other reason would one think of selecting out of 
the great body of folk-tales such stories as "Faith- 
ful John," or "East o' the Sun and West o' the 
Moon" ? They are long and complex, contain 
many objectionable features, and are anything 
but childlike in their main current of thought. 
It would be easy to mention twenty folk-tales 
far superior in every way for children except for 
the lesson which these are thought to convey. 

It is possible to be too exacting regarding liter- 
ary beauty and finish. An over-refinement here 
may cause one to reject altogether certain types 
of stories which, while not measuring up to the 
standard of the classic, still appeal to children 
and serve to suggest desirable lines of thought 
and action. Many realistic stories and bits of 
history and biography come in this class, since 



we can rarely find such m.aterial in very finished 
or perfect form. Here the art ideal must be 
partially set aside in favor of something which 
is for the time of paramount importance. 

Don't Choose Just Because They Are 
Seasonal 

The seasonal influence often tends to narrow 
and circumscribe the choice of stories in the 
kindergarten and to set a false valuation upon 
many that we use. Take a complete collection 
of Hans Andersen's fairy-stories and search for 
those best suited to little children. Would any- 
one think of selecting "The Little Match Girl" 
for kindergarten or first grade were it not for 
the fact that it is a Christmas story? I am in- 
clined to think that "Persephone" from among the 
myths is chosen chiefly for its seasonal signifi- 
cance, since its theme is not particularly well fitted 
to little children. The use of poor, homemade 
stories is accounted for in the same way. 

Information Not the Chief Value 

Information is not a legitimate element in story 
any more than in poetry. Nature fairy-stories are 
as much a "fraud on the fairies" as the abuse to 
which Dickens referred, that of turning the old 
tales into temperance tracts. Nature's phenomena 
and processes are quite as marvelous as any fairy- 
tale and will, if properly presented, prove quite as 
interesting to children, but these wonders can not 
be revealed by talking about them or by weaving 
fanciful tales about natural events. 

There is a truth, deeper than scientific fact and 
more significant in the lives of children, contained 
in such a story of animal life as that of the squir- 
rel mother and the elf, which forms a chapter in 
Selma Lagerlof's "The Wonderful Adventures of 
Nils." And does not Kipling, in his whimsical 
and altogether delightful way. answer to the 
entire satisfaction of young minds some of the 
whys and wherefores that beset them? 

In the class of short, realistic stories for little 
children, few writers of real power have made any 
contribution. At first this fact seems unaccount- 
able when one. considers that writers of ability 
have not deemed it beneath them to collect, edit, 
and revise folk-material for little children, and 
that not a few writers of genius have produced 
delightful fai^y stories, fairy plays, and fanciful 
tales. In the matter of fairy plays, witness the 
noteworthy list of comparatively recent produc- 
tions : "Peter Pan," "The Bluebird," "The Good 
Little Devil," "Snow-White," "Racketty-Packetty 
House." Probably adult mind and child mind 
are much more nearly on a plane in the realm of 



328 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



fancy, while in the realm of real, everyday child- 
life with its small problems and events it is almost 
impossible for a grown-up to get down close 
enough to see from the child's standpoint. Cer- 
tain it is that there is a sad lack of stories of the 
realistic type having any claim to literary merit. 



It seems very important that teachers should 
have a wide range of stories from which to select. 
In the use of stories much depends on one's own 
taste and temperament, and better results are 
obtained where the individual has a large degree 
of freedom in the matter of choice. 



FIFTY BEST KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY STORIES 



This list was compiled by the Literature Committee of the International 
Kindergarten Union. Forty-four of the secular stories are found in the 
volumes of the Bovs and Girls Bookshelf, and the stories from the Bible 
are in the companion volume of Bible Stories and Character Building. 



KINDERGARTEN STORIES 

The Cat and the Mouse. 

Henny Penny. 

The Elves and the Shoemaker. 

The Fox and the Little Red Hen. 

The Goats in the Rye Field. 

Little Black Sambo' 

The Little Red Hen and the Grain of Wheat. 

Oeyvind and Marit. 

The Old Woman and Her Pig. 

Gingerbread Boy. 

Scrapefoot. 

Three Billy Goats Gruff. 

The Three Pigs. 

Thumbelina. 

Travels of a Box. 

Wee Robin's Christmas Song. 

Stories from the Bible 

Birth of Christ. 

Boy Samuel. 

Moses in Bulrushes. 

STORIES FOR FIRST GR.\DE 

Brementovvn Musicians. 

Cinderella. 

Doll in the Grass. 

Fisherman and His Wife. 

The Fire-bringer. 

Fulfilled. 

The Hare and the Hedgehog. 

Hashnu, the Stone Cutter. 

The Lad Who Went to the North Wind. 

The Sheep and Pig Who Set Up Housekeeping. 

The Straw Ox. 

Taper Tom. 



Town Rat and Country Rat. 
The Wonderful Iron Pot. 
Viggo and Beate. 

The Doll Under tlie Briar Rosebush. 

The Floating Island. 
Stories from the Bible 

Birth of Christ. 

Daniel in the Lion's Den. 

David and Goliath. 

STORIES FOR SECOND GR.A.DE 

Boots and His Brothers. 

Sleeping Beauty. 

Hansel and Gretel. 

The Flying Ship. 

The Jackal and the Camel. 

King Midas. 

Line of Golden Light. 

Princess on the Glass Hill. 

Saint Christopher. 

Scar-face. 

Tar Baby. 

The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal. 

■Viggo and Beate. 

Allarni. 

The Black Pond. 

Hans, the Old Soldier. 
Bingo. 

Johnny Bear. 
Raggylug. 
Stories from the Bible 

Birth of Christ. 

Gideon, the Warrior. 

Joseph and His Brothers. 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan. 

The Parable of the Prodigal Son. 



THE POETRY HABIT* 



CLARA WniTEHILL HUNT 



When I was a little girl I had the good fortune 
to live in a city where there were no bridges, 
crushes, and police-patrol gongs, barrack-built 
flats and brownstone rows, to frighten away the 
birds and crowd out the flowers and play-spaces; 
but where fathers, even on moderate salaries, 
could own little houses with big piazzas and gen- 
erous yards. We boys and girls raised Jack-o'- 
lantern pumpkins in those yards, and cheerful 
morning-glories and downy chickens. We plucked 
juicy plums and cherries and grapes from our own 
trees and vines. We played in safe, shady streets 
without fear of trolleys or motors; for our city 
was so charmingly behind the times that the jin- 
gling horse-car did not readily give place to the 
clanging electric. In Spring we tapped the maple- 
trees in front of our houses, smacking our lips 
over the few spoonsful of sap that dripped as 
musically into our suspended pails as if this were 
a "truly" maple-sugar camp in the country. After 
school hours, in the rapidly gathering dusk of 
short autumn days, we raked gorgeous leaves 
into huge piles and danced wild Indian dances 
around bonfires that blazed like beacons up and 
down the length of streets unpaved with for- 
bidden asphalt. We made snow-forts and snow- 
men and Kskimo huts, we wallowed in clean snow- 
drifts, we coasted down long, hilly streets on 
our big brothers' "bobs." 

Yet how all these pleasures of the school year 
were as drab to scarlet contrasted with the 
radiance of vacations on Grandmother's beautiful 
farm ! How we hated to take off our clothes at 
night for fear troublesome buttons would make 
us miss something in the morning when we woke 
far too early to bother poor Mother to help us 
dress. How, beneath all the childish, physical 
delights of wading and huckleberrying and riding 
atop the loaded hay-wagon and playing "I spy" 
in the shadowy barn, there flowed the deep cur- 
rent of joy in the beauty of earth and sky ! 
When, barefooted under the willows, we tugged 
at heavy rocks which we perspiringly erected 
into lighthouses and forts to guard our homes 
along the brook — I should say the seashore — we 
were only dimly conscious that the song of the 
brook and the carpet of dancing light and shade 



under our feet, the feel of the flower-scented 
breeze on our hot little faces, the murmur and 
hum of the insects in the waving meadow grass 
over the stone wall, the vivid blue of the sky — 
which an old black crow "caw-caw'd" for us 
to look up and notice — that all these beauties of 
Mother Earth were a deep part of the happiness 
of our free play in the outdoors, whose large- 
ness was answering to a craving of the child- 
soul, that feels the cramp of the city more than 
does the adult. 

How Prosaic the City Child's Life 

To-day I watch the children at play as I walk 
to my office along streets of highly respectable 
apartment-houses. How cruelly narrow the range 
for the imagination of the young child ! The 
very "respectability" of a neighborhood — which 
exacts a rent that often eats up all country va- 
cation money — is against the child. How can a 
youngster possibly have a good time if he is not 
allowed to muss up the front steps and get his 
clothes dirty? Yet it is not the physical handi- 
cap of the city child that most stirs my pity, for 
his he'alth record is steadily improving. It is the 
little one's missing experiences in beauty, it is 
the robbery of his imagination, effected by paved 
streets, that I deplore. 

There is no possible help for these children 
except as they shall get their experiences vicari- 
ously through Father and Mother and books. 
For our comfort we know how marvelously books 
can be made to supply what Father's salary can 
not. Only we need to remember how and when 
to apply the various books. There is a best time 
for introducing poetry and myth and heroes of 
history; and a lifelong loss may be that child's 
whose parents know not when to feed a certain 
interest. 

Begin in Earliest Babyhood 

The baby's first taste of poetry should be given 
not later than a month after he alights, trailing 
his clouds of glory and with the music of his 
heavenly home attuning his ears to a delight in 
rhyme and rhythm, long before Mother's songs 
convey the word-meanings to his mind. There 



* From "What .Shall We Read to the Children" by Clara Whitehill Hunt. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. 
Reprinted by permission of the publishers. 



330 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



never was a normal baby born into this world 
who did not bring with him a love for poetry; 
and the fact that so few adults retain a trace 
of this most pure delight points to the need of 
conscious effort on the parent's part to foster 
the child's natural gift. 

So the first book I would put into the baby's 
library would be a collection of the loveliest lulla- 
bies and hymns and sweet old story-songs. I know 
that doctors and nurses frown upon rocking the 
baby to sleep, but if I were a young mother I'd 
rock and sing to that baby after he waked up ! 
I would sing Tennyson's "Sweet and Low," and 
Holland's "Rockaby, Lullaby, Bees in the Clover," 
and Field's "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod"; the 
little German slumber song — 

"Sleep, baby, sleep. 
The large stars are the sheep ;" 

and the Gaelic lullaby — 

"Hush, the waves are rolling in 
White with foam, white with foam." 

I would sing "O Little Town of Bethlehem," 
and "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." and 
"While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by 
Night." I would sing the "Crusader's Hymn," 
and Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," 
and Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light," and Pley- 
el's "Children of the Heavenly King," and Bar- 
ing-Gould's "Now the Day is Over." I would 
sing "Annie Laurie," and "Home, Sweet Home," 
and "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton," and "The 
Suwanee River." 

Use of Lullabies and Finger-Plays 

Choosing songs so beautiful and so appealing 
to a child's heart, I should make sure that when 
the little one began to try to imitate Mother, he 
would sing of winds that ruffle the waves, of dew, 
of pleasant banks and green valleys and clear, 
winding rills, of the Heavenly Father's care, of 
the enduringness of home love. I should know 
that, though the words at first called up no clear 
mental pictures, they would spell love and beauty 
and happy feeling, and that life would, little by 
little, unfold to the child the full meanings of 
these lovely songs. 

Before the baby is a year old he will enjoy 
action-rhymes like "This little pig went to 
market," "Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man." 
By the time he is two, he will be trying to repeat 
the gay Mother Goose jingles with their irre- 
sponsible nonsense and their catching rhyme and 
rhythm. \Mien he is three he will be enjoying 
Stevenson's "I have a little shadow that goes in 



and out with me." and other posies from "The 
Child's Garden of Verses." 

Use of Story-Telling Poems 

Now the important thing is for the baby to 
acquire the poetry habit. A few years later, this 
child, if he has not listened to verse nearly 
every day of his life, may begin to be bored by 
the language of poetry, so dear to one who com- 
prehends quickly, so tiresome to one who, for 
lack of right preparation, must dig out the mean- 
ings, as he works at a translation from a dead 
language. 

At first we need to repeat nursery jingles and 
the simplest child verses, because these are the 
bottom steps of the "golden staircase" to real 
poetry. If. however, we try to get firmly lodged 
in mind the fact that children enjoy an infinite 
number of things which they do not understand ; 
that they understand far more than they can ex- 
press ; that their understanding grows by leaps 
and bounds if we foolish adults do not inter- 
fere — we shall stop trying to stint their active 
imaginations by keeping them so long on baby- 
rhymes. * 

The child will most easily climb the staircase 
to real poetry by way of story-telling poems. 
Sentimental and martial, merry and sad, the 
story-interest and the music of the old English 
and Scotch ballads fit them exactly to the liking 
of children, little and big. Browning and Tenny- 
son, Matthew Arnold and Scott and Longfellow 
give to the children "The Pied Piper," "The 
Lady of Shalott," "The Forsaken Merman," 
"Jock of Hazeldean," "The Bell of Atri." A 
number, almost without end, of stirring romances 
in verse will reward a search through our "adult" 
poetry Hbrary, after we have exhausted the lovely 
children's collections like "The Blue Poetry 
Book," "Golden Numbers," "The Golden Stair- 
case," and others. 

Connecting Poetry with Biography and 
History 

. Each poem may be made to introduce many 
others, if we take advantage of the child's de- 
light in the association of ideas he has acquired. 
For example, the little one has loved to hear 
mother sing "Annie Laurie" and "The Blue 
Bells of Scotland" and "The Campbells are 



"She read a poem to her child one day. 
And added explanations not a few. 
But paused a moment at the end to say, 
'I wonder, darling, if it's clear to yon.' 

"But still he sighed, and slowly shook his head; 
She turned the page as if to start again. 
When, drawing nearer, 'Mother, dear,* he =aid, 
'I'll understand it if you don't explain.' " 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



331 



Comin'." He has mourned brave Sir Patrick 
Spens, has galloped with Lochinvar, and "wi' 
Wallace bled" in defense of Scotland's freedom. 
Scotland to him has become a land of romance, 
dear to his heart. One day, after he has been 
lustily singing "The Campbells Are Comin' , Oho ! 
Oho !" Mother tells him how the dying English, 
penned up in Lucknow, sprang to their feet laugh- 
ing and crying with joy as they heard, faint and 
far away, the bagpipes playing "The Campbells 
Are Comin'." Now is the time to read Whit- 
tier's "The Pipes at Lucknow," as Bayard Tay- 
lor's "Song of the Camp" will touch the children 
after they have joined in singing "Annie Laurie." 
Taylor's poem, and the bit of explanation about 
the Crimean War which it involves, will in- 
troduce "The Charge of the Light Brigade," 
another stirring poem of the same war. 

A whole cycle of Southern and Civil War 
songs and poems may follow the reading of the 
L^ncle Remus stories — "Dixie" and "Maryland, 
My Maryland," "My Old Kentucky Home," 
"Sheridan's Ride," and "Oh, Captain, My Cap- 
tain !" Somehovi'. the child will enter into the 
heart of the North and the South, the soldier 
and the slave, and he will be a better American 
in this reunited country for loving the songs of 
both sections that gave their best for what they 
believed to be the right. 

The Right Poem at the Right Time 

Make it an unvarying practice to link poetry 
with the children's every happy experience, every 



celebration, family or national or religious. Read 
the "Concord Hymn" and "Paul Revere's Ride" 
on the Fourth of July, "The Landing of the Pil- 
grims" at Thanksgiving, "The Flag Goes By" 
and "The Commemoration Ode" on Memorial 
Day. 

Weeks before Christmas begin to read and 
sing every beautiful poem and song you can find. 
There are so many, we have no excuse for de- 
scending to doggerel. On New Year's Eve read 
Tennyson's "Death of the Old Year": on a gusty 
winter evening read "Old Winter is a Sturdy 
One." Before taking a journey, hunt up poems 
of places the children will visit. After an ex- 
citing trip to the Zoo read Blake's "Tiger, Tiger, 
Burning Bright," and Tavlor's "Night with a 
Wolf." 

When the children have enjoyed the Norse 
stories, read them Longfellow's "Skeleton in 
Armor." After hearing the stories of Tarpeia 
and Curtius and other Roman legends, they will 
be ready for Macaulay's "Lays." 

Does any father or mother think I am- going 
too fast? Prove it by experiment! I am sug- 
gesting a poetry course, not for the "exceptional 
child," but for real little bread-and-butter boys 
and girls of happy birth and home environment. 
There are only three rules necessary to follow 
if you would delight your soul with watching 
your children's poetry taste grow with their 
growth. These are : 

Begin early. 

Read poetry every day. 

Read the right poem at the right time. * 



ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT SEX t 



MARGARET W. MORLEY 



'"Where Did I Come From?" 

This question the child is bound to ask sooner 
or later. There are two ways of answering it. 
One way is to evade the question, or answer it 
untruthfully, telling the child that the stork 
brought him or some such fiction. This is a bad 
way, for the child knows it is not true. If, at 
first, he does not know it is false, he soon will. 
The other way is to tell the truth. One mother 



answered the question of her eight-year-old son 
with the simple statement, "You came from 
Mother, dear. You grew within her body and 
lay close to her heart for a long time. She knew 
you were coming, and got ready for you, and 
thought about you, and loved you even before 
you were born." The boy looked at her, threw 
his arms about her, and exclaimed, "Oh, Mother ! 
that is why I love you so." He had been told 
the truth, and he instinctively knew it was the 



* Read slowly and with full rhythmic swing to eet the swing of it early. 

In order to have "right poetry at the right time. ' I find it good to keep marked volumes within easy reach, also our 
own "Home Anthology." We copy into this all bits of poetry the children have asked for from Library Books or others 
we can't keep. — M. S. L, 

fTiiE^CHlLD Welfare Manual has two careful articles showing how to give this important instruction in detail to boys 
and to girls. 

K.N.— 23 



332 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



truth. He did not have to find out later that his 
mother had deceived him. 

When any child finds that he has been deceived 
by his mother, he naturally loses confidence in 
her. Usually he will not ask her any more ques- 
tions, but vvfill listen to vile stories from other 
people and will think that they are true and that 
is why his mother is not willing to be frank with 
him. 

It is well to anticipate the direct question by 
getting ready before the child is old enough to 
ask it. How to do this? Begin, perhaps, with 
seeds. Show the seed-pods of any plant. The 
seeds are«the children of the plant. The plant 
gives them protection and feeds them with its 
juices. They are part of the plant. The plant 
is the mother of the seeds. When the seeds are 
ripe, the pod opens and the seeds leave their 
mother to live their own separate lives. 

Dwell upon the care the mother-plant takes 
of her little seed-children, of the beautiful flower 
petals she wraps about the tiny pod. Speak often 
and reverently of motherhood. Make the little 
boy as well as the little girl understand and love 
the mother. 

In the springtime show birds' nests, if possible. 
If not, show pictures and talk about nest-building 
and how both parents engage in it. Then show 
or tell about the eggs. Explain how the eggs 
grew inside the mother-bird. They are a part 
of her, just as the seeds are a part of the plant. 
When the eggs are ready, the bird lays them in 
the pretty nest and sits on them to keep them 
warm. The father-bird sings to her and feeds 
her. Both birds love the baby birds, and as soon 
as they hatch out, father bird and mother bird 
feed them and care for them and teach them to 



fly. A hen sitting on her eggs can be used to 
teach the lesson. The egg grew in the hen. How 
wonderful it is that a little egg can change into 
a beautiful bird or a cunning little chicken! As 
the child grows older, lead him to notice that 
the seed grows into a. plant just like the parent, 
that the egg becomes a bird like the parents. 
Tell the child how important it is for children 
to come from good parents. Speak of parents 
and children when talking of plants and birds; 
this will cause the child unconsciously to connect 
the ideas gained about plants and birds with hu- 
man life. 

When a chance comes to show the child young 
kittens or puppies or rabbits, or the young of 
any animal, tell him quite frankly, whether he 
asks or not, that of course the young ones came 
from the mother, that before they were born they 
were a part of her. Make it all seem natural to 
the child. 

Dwell upon the love and care the mother every- 
where bestows upon her children. Include father 
love wherever it is expressed in the lower life. 

When at last the great question comes, the 
child will probably answer it himself, "Mamma, 
did I come from you?" "Yes, darling, you were 
once a part of mother. How mother loves her 
little son (daughter) !" 

Each mother will think of a way to tell the 
story, according to circumstances. Only remem- 
ber two things. Tell the story properly before 
anybody gets ahead of you and poisons the child's 
mind. And tell it in a way to make the child 
reverence and love parenthood. 

The mother can make her child what she wants 
him to be by impressing right ideas and high 
ideals upon him when he is very young. 



THE RELIGIOUS NURTURE OF A LITTLE CHILD 



WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 

"Lo! Lord. I sit in Thy icide space, 

My child upon my knee, 

She looketh up into my face. 

And I look up to Thee." 

— George M.^cDox.^ld. 



What shall we teach the little child about 
religion? Remembering that he is perfectly 
credulous, but also that he is of limited capacity, 
naturally we should teach him only what he is 
ready for. Instead of volunteering information 
upon all sorts of religious topics, our conversa- 
tion should be chiefly confined to those things in 



which he shows a ready interest; and our religious 
replies should be almost entirely to questions that 
the child raises himself. 

Teaching About God 

Most parents teach about God as Jesus did, as 
our Father, perhaps unconsciously expecting that 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



333 



this thought will be interpreted by human parent- 
hood. It may not be wholly sentiment which 
causes us to approve of the following anecdote, 
which illustrates how the child reads his social 
experience with his parents into his thought of 
God. The story is told by Dr. Coe. "Mamma," 
said a small boy, "do you know what I'm going 
to do the first thing when I get to heaven? I'm 
going to run up to the Heavenly Father and give 
Him a kiss !" 

So near is the child to the animal world that 
we can not reach to the depth of his nature un- 
less we touch the animal and passional as well 
as the spiritual. The child must be made manly 
before he can become godlike. In no better way 
does the mother reveal the love of God than by 
her anxiety so to satisfy the child's physical needs 
as to reveal her own love to him. The sense 
of perpetual comfort and 'care not only makes 
the child feel at home in his world, but makes 
him convinced that God is a Person there. The 
sharing of the physical life has in it, as Dr. Coe 
suggests, the sacredness of incarnation. The es- 
sential method of education is the sharing of life 
between a higher and a lower person, whereby 
the principle of incarnation is carried forward 
in each new generation. 

This care of the body of the child has another 
religious value, too, in that protecting the child 
as a good animal is the wholesomest way to pre- 
pare him to become a good Christian. 

But even this thought of the Fatherhood of 
God does not entirely satisfy the child, because 
it does not seem to fill the spaces of the universe 
with his presence. There is still so much that is 
dark and mysterious which the child can not ex- 
plain. We may therefore agree with President 
Hall, that anything that stimulates the child's 
thoughts about the unseen world, which makes 
him believe that Nature is alive and friendly, is 
truly religious teaching. Whatever fosters the 
sense of being at home in the universe, or in any 
way teaches the sense of the oneness of it, is lead- 
ing toward the desired end. 

The first question which suggests to the mother 
the necessity of telling the child about God is 
generally a question of cause. Dr. George E. 
Dawson cites a child, probably his own, who be- 
gan with his fourth year and seemed always to be 
trying to find out where things came from origi- 
nally and who kept the world a-going. "Who 
makes the birds ?" "Who made the very first bird ?" 
"Who fixed their wings so they can fly?'' "Who 
takes care of the birds and rabbits in the Winter, 
when snow is on the ground?" "Who makes the 
grass grow?" "Who makes the trees?" "Who 
makes them shed their leaves and get them back 



again ?" "Who made the sand and rocks in Forest 
Park?" "Who made the Connecticut River?" 
"Who keeps it from running dry?" "Who makes 
it thunder?" "Who put the moon in the sky?" 
"Who made the whole world?" "Who made peo- 
ple?" "Who made me?" "Does God make every- 
thing?" "Who made God?" "Was God already 
made?" "Is God everywhere?" Such were the 
questions asked again and again, with all sorts of 
comments in reply to the answers that were given 
him. The question of zi'ltaf is the origin of things 
was seldom or never asked. It was always ■who; 
and when the personal cause he was seeking was 
named "God," in connection with numerous ob- 
jects he finally generalized by asking if God 
makes everything. Earl Barnes cites a four-year- 
old girl who asked more definite questions. "What 
does God eat? Is it chopped grass? Doesn't 
God have any dinner? Did Robinson Crusoe live 
before God? Who was before God? Is rain 
God's tears running out of the sky? How did 
God put the moon in the sky ?" 

Mrs. Edith Read Mumford says: 

"The romance of fairies, gnomes, and sprites 
is, to my mind, full of spiritual truth. Every 
flower, every leaf, every object around us, has 
a spirit of its own; is fraught with mystery, 
they are more than mere material objects ; they 
are, as it were, thoughts of the Creative Power 
clothed in matter. Can the Spirit of love, of 
power, of beauty, of humor, embodied in the 
world, be more fitly expressed for the child than 
in this undergrowth, as it were, of tiny creatures, 
haunting the night, when the 'humans' are asleep; 
this world of moral, unmoral, and non-moral 
fairy beings?" 

Because of the vividness with which children 
clothe inanimate things with life we must be 
cautious about telling children things which they 
may magnify into terrorizing objects. It is cruel 
to tell children stories about "The Bad Man," 
"The Big Bear that will catch you," etc. Bolton 
suggests that even the good fairies and Santa 
Claus should never be represented as dwelling 
too near. Let them be the "good men away off." 
A child may suffer great mental agony if he 
thinks that even dear old Santa Claus lives in 
the kitchen chimney. 

In teaching about God to little children, Jesus 
must be left for the present in their thought, no 
matter what be the theological beliefs of the 
parents, rather, as Horace Bushnell said, "as 
the good Carpenter saving the world" than as 
Deity. And we may agree with Dr. Coe, that 
the point of contact between Him and the in- 
dividual child is "the spirit of loyalty, which 
makes the child endeavor to be like some great 



334 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



person of whom he has heard and which im- 
pels a child to do the right." "You can't do 
this, 'because Father or Mother wouldn't like 
it," produces similar allegiance, admiration, and 
affection for Jesus Christ. To develop such 
loyalty in childhood is to render a service of in- 
estimable value. It is to do the greatest thing 
that can be done for the shaping of character. 

Teaching About Duty 

The child's conception of duty is always con- 
crete: it always takes the form of some definite 
thing to be done or to be left undone now. 

It consists therefore almost entirely in the 
forming of correct habits of doing the customary 
things that are to be done and of inhibiting the 
things that are customarily not to be done. 

Dr. Arthur Holmes puts it even more con- 
cretely when he says, "The problem of character- 
making with the child from one to twelve years 
of age resolves itself into making good habits by 
having the child do tilings." 

Perhaps the child outgrows this automatic rela- 
tion to righteousness sometimes earlier than we 
think, owing to his intense personifying of 
things ; his sense of loyalty to right may be as 
early and as powerful as that of loyalty to per- 
sons. Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher says, "I 
know a child not yet quite three who, by the 
maddeningly persistent interrogations character- 
istic of his age, has succeeded in extracting from 
a pair of gardening elders an explanation of the 
difference between weeds and flowers, and who 
has been so struck with this information that 
he has, entirely of his own volition, enlisted him- 
self in the army of natural-born reformers. He 
throws himself upon a weed, uproots it and casts 
it away with the righteously indignant exclama- 
tion, 'Horrid old weed ! Stop eating the flowers' 
dinner !' " 

Habits of Prayer 

"Children," says Mrs. Mumford, "are not ready 
for prayer at any fixed period in their lives. In 
some the instinct of affection and gratitude is 
late in developing. If they do not greatly love 
the father whom they have seen, how can they 
love a Father whom they have not seen? And 
if they do not love, are they ready to pray? The 
first condition of all religion is merging of self- 
love into other love. Love goes before faith. 
Not to love is not to believe, for it is love which 
makes us feel that the object is worthy of our 
faith. Bit by bit, in the case of such children, 
we need to develop the loving side of their na- 
ture and watch for our opportunity to tell them 
of God. Some children can truly pray before 



they are three ; others not till much later. But 
the earlier the better, if the prayer is real. Until 
they can pray themselves we must let them see 
that we pray for them. But when they begin to 
be capable of unselfish love toward those around 
them, begin to grow in their power of imagina- 
tion — on some specially glad day, when we are 
tucking them up at night, we can remind them 
of all the glad things in their lives, recall the 
joys of that day, the beautiful sunshine, the 
flowers in the garden, the romp with Father, 
the kisses and the hugs at bedtime, till the little 
one glows with conscious joy ! Then we can 
ask, 'Who gives you all this joy? Who makes 
Father and Mother love you ? Who makes you 
love them — the loving that makes you so glad ?' 
We can tell them it is God who gives all good 
things. Would they like to thank God? If the 
children respond, and they will respond if we 
have chosen the right moment, with their eyes 
shut and hands reverently folded, we let them 
say their first spontaneous prayer: 'Thank you 
for making me happy ; please make everybody 
happy,' is one such first prayer. The form of 
prayer may depend upon the child and our sug- 
gestions to the child; but we must see that it is 
real." 

Reverence in Prayer 

The Importance of reverent attitudes is that 
they readily become to the child the physical ex- 
pression of the moral feeling. "The child's first 
ideas of prayer," Froebel said, ''come to him 
when an infant, by the mother's kneeling beside 
his crib in silent prayer; her bowed head and 
kneeling body tell of submission to and reverence 
for a power greater than herself; her tone of 
voice when she speaks of sacred things is far 
more effectual with the little listener than the 
words she says." 

It hardly needs to be said that kneeling in a 
cold room is not sacred, and that the necessary 
haste to get into bed destroys any sense of rever- 
ence. Many young children love to say their 
prayers on what William Canton's "W. V." 
called mother's "blessed lap of heaven." 

We have an opportunity to develop the spirit 
of reverence by the child's contact with the world 
in which he lives. To bring a little one into a 
great church, perhaps a cathedral, eitlicr during 
a beautiful service or when the sanctuary is 
empty, and teaching him to step softly, to catch 
the wonder of the height, the depth or the di- 
mensions, and to look up with reverence toward 
the Holy Place, is to give the child an emotional 
impression that will be far-reaching. Even more 
profound is the child's reaction toward darkness 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



335 



and starlight. Some children who were afraid to 
stay in bed alone have been entirely reassured 
by being taken to the window and shown the 
hosts of heaven, which seemed to them like 
guardian spirits. So tremendous is the impres- 
sion of the multitude of stars upon children that 
one child, at least, acknowledged, even in woman- 
hood, that she was scarcely able then to endure 
to look upon their splendor. 

How to Teach a Child to Pray 

The method of one mother, cited by Susan 
Chenery in her "As the Twig Is Bent," is per- 
haps typical. 

"When Margery was about two," said Helen, 
"I taught her to say a little prayer, and had her 
repeat it every night on going to bed. 'God bless 
Margery'- — that was all at first ; but I showed her 
how to kneel, and she understood that the prayer 
was always to come before lying down for the 
night. Of course, the name God meant nothing 
to her, and the three words together nothing at 
all. My only idea was to have her begin to pray 
so early that it would be second nature to her 
to say her evening prayer, and. indeed, that she 
should not be able to recall a time when she did 
not say it. As she grew older I suggested "God 
bless Papa. God bless Mamma. God bless Frank. 
God bless Margery.' and this was the form for 
some time, but was altered to admit others from 
time to time, and often stretches out now into a 
long list of friends and relatives. 

"Not for a long time did I try to teach her 
anything about God ; but it was probably in an- 
swer to some questions of hers that I explained, 
when she was old enough to be interested, that 
God loves us, that He is the Father of all the 
people in the world, that He wants everyone to 
do what is right, that He sees everything that 
happens, that He is glad when we do right and 
sorry when we do wrong, and that He has a 
home where He takes His children when they 
are through with this world." 

Perhaps the prayer most commonly taught to 
little children in the one that begins. "Now I lay 
me." This has been objected to by many parents 
because of its entire selfishness and its prominent 
suggestion of danger and death. A better ren- 
dering is this: 

"Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep ; 
Tliy love be with me through the night, 
And bless me with the morning light." 

Mrs. Mary Duncan, many years ago. composed 
a rhyming prayer which is thoroughly childlike 
and contains many elements of a good prayer : 



"Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me. 
Bless Thy little lamb to-night; 
Through the darkness be Thou near me : 
Keep me safe till morning light. 

"All this day Thy hand has led me, 

And I thank Thee for Thy care ; 
Thou hast warmed me, clothed and fed me ; 
Listen to my evening prayer ! 

"Let my sins be all forgiven ; 

Bless the friends I love so well ; 
Take us all at last to heaven, 
Happy there with Thee to dwell." 



Dr. George Hodges gives the following peti- 
tion, in which the suggestion of a rhyme assists 
the memory : "O Lord, our Heavenly Father, 
lead me, guard me. help me, bless me, keep me, 
make me pure and brave and true, in all I think 
and say and do !" 

A Treasury of Prayers 

A MORNING PRAYER 

"Dear God, I thank Thee for the light and the food 
and the love and for all the other good things Thou 
hast given me. Please help me to be a good, kind 

child to-day and bless and (naming 

those he loves). Amen." 

A MORNING PRAYER 

"Father, we thank Thee for the night, 
And for the pleasant morning light ; 
For rest and food and loving, care. 
And all that makes the day so fair. 

"Help us to do the things we should, 
To be to others kind and good ; 
In all wc do in work or play. 
To grow more loving every day." 

A MORNING PR,\YER 

"Father, dear, I fain would thank Thee 
For my long refreshing sleep. 
And the watch that Thou didst keep, 
While I slumbered soft and deep, 
O'er Thy child so lovingly. 

"All that I to-day am doing. 
Help me. Lord, to do for Thee; 
May I kind and helpful be, 
Only good in others see, 
Try to serve Thee faithfully. Amen." 

A GRACE AT TABLE 

"Lord Tesus, be our Holy Guest, 
Our morning Joy, our evening Rest; 
And with our daily bread impart 
Thy love and peace to every heart." 

A GRACE AT TABLE 

"We thank Thee for this bread and meat 
And all the good things which we eat ; 
Lord, may we strong and happy be. 
And always good and true like Thee." 

— James Maxon Yard. 



236 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



AN EVENING PRAYER 

"Now I lay me down to sleep ; 
Heavenly Father, wilt Thou keep 
Me and those I love all night? 
I'or with Thee 'tis always light. 

"And. dear Father, while I share 
In Thy tender love and care. 
Help me every day to be 
An obedient child to Thee. Amen." 

— Hcnrielta R. Eliot 

AN EVENING PRAYER 

"In my work and in my play 
Thou hast kept me through the day. 
While I close my eyes in sleep. 
Tender watch above me keep. 
Loving Jesus, meek and mild, 
Let me be thine own dear child. .\men." 

AN EVENING PRAYER 

"Father, bless Thy little child to-night ; 
Wake me with the morning light. 
May I pure and holy be. 
Daily growing more like Thee. Amen." 

One mother, cited by Kate Upson Clark, met 
a special problem in teaching her child to frame 
a prayer of his own. She met it wisely, as fol- 
lows: "I found it impossible, when my eldest 
child became old enough to make up a prayer 
for himself, to induce him to do it. He was too 
shy and too reserved to do it. He could not 
seem to find the words. I meditated upon the 
matter, and prayed for light upon it. At last I 
saw that, as the most effective instruction is by 
means of the object lesson, it was my duty to 
offer such a prayer as I thought he ought to, 
until he should learn to do it for himself. There- 
fore, instead of offering a mere formal and con- 
ventional prayer, as I had been used to, I began 
to offer such a prayer as I thought he would 
want to, using expressions like, 'when I grow up,' 
and 'help me to obey my father and mother and 
teachers,' just as if he were talking himself. 
The prayer is always very short and plain. As 
the younger children became old enough to un- 
derstand, I adopted the same custom with them. 

"That they enjoy this little prayer, so simple 
and so short that I am almost ashamed to men- 
tion it, is proved by the fact that they often say, 
'Don't forget your little prayer. Mamma'; and if 
I am going out to dinner, or to any entertain- 
ment, they say, 'Why, Mamma, you can't say your 
little prayer if you go away and don't get back 
until we have gone to sleep.' " 

This practice is certainly a beautiful one. and 
if the mother does not always succeed in making 
her petitions childlike and the little one falls 



asleep, it will in later days be a sacred memory 
that she used to fall asleep amid her mother's 
prayers. 

So strong is the imitativeness of little children 
that it is often extraordinarily difficult to de- 
termine, even in the case of the child of six or' 
seven, how far his religion has, even at that age, 
become directly personal, or whether God is not 
often a Being to whom access is only possible 
through someone else. Susan Chenery gives an 
illustration in which we seem to watch the growth 
of the child into a personal conception of God. 

"Margery had been repeating a prayer for a 
good many months before she realized the privi-, 
leges of prayer. One night she said to me as I 
tucked her up for the night, 'Mamma, what do 
people do when they want things?' Not quite 
understanding her, I yet answered, 'If it is some- 
thing to buy, and they have money and know 
it is right to buy it, why, they go and get it.' 
'But if it isn't to buy with money, and they don't 
know how to get it?' 'I'll tell you what I do, 
Margery; I ask God to let me have it, if it is 
good for me, but that I don't want it if it isn't.' 
'How do you ask him?' 'I say, "Oh, God, if it is 
best, help me to get this thing, and don't let me 
have it if it isn't good for me." 'Oh, yes, now 
I know. If I whisper it, can He 'hear?' 'Yes, 
indeed, or if you just think it, He will know all 
about it.' She told me afterwards what it was 
she wanted, and that she had asked for it." 

The Little Child and the Bible 

The reason why the Bible is the child's first 
and best story-book is because the early Israelites 
were a child-nation — a nation with its face to- 
ward God. If it be true that the little child does 
not have an innate God-consciousness, it is never- 
theless a fact that, as Mrs. Louise Seymour 
Houghton tells us, "There is in all the world 
nothing so reasonable to the unsophisticated hu- 
man mind as God. The little child, 'made of 
dust and the Father's breath,' 'has a bias toward 
the faculty of God - consciousness. The Old 
Testament is the best of all religious story-books 
for the little child, because it is the one book in 
the world in which it is assumed that man is in 
a divine order. The relations with God, as we 
find them in the Old Testament, are the relations 
of a child-people with their Heavenly Father." 

Even the order of the books of the Bible seems 
appropriate to the stages of the child's develop- 
ment. It begins with stories of the creation — a 
wonder-tale that ajipeals strongly to the mind of 
the child who is beginning to ask "Why?" and 
"How?" Next comes a period of pastoral life, 
affecting the child's out-of-doors interests; then 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



337 



the heroic stage, telling of the God of Battles, 
the stern and just Lawgiver and Inflictor of 
Punishments, like the parent — a narrative full of 
wonderful tales, of which the child never tires. 
Later comes the story of Jesus, with its spirit 
of love and self-sacrifice, especially appealing to 
adolescents, but containing in its child episodes 
much that touches the affections and sympathies 
of the little child. 

The parent, of course, tells Bible stories by a 
wise selection. The stor}' of the creation, in the 
second chapter of Genesis, with its picturesque 
details and human interest, is far more effective 
than that in the first chapter or that in the Book 
of Job. There are, for instance, in the Old 
Testament, narratives which wind like a river 
under terrible crags, through malarial reaches 
and into untraversable bogs. The mother will 
forsake these for the sunlit streams and the musi- 
cal waterfalls. The exact narrative of the Scrip- 
ture must, of course, be freely handled.* Some 
even accommodate the Bible >to modern thought 
by up-to-date slang. This is scarcely necessary, 
but is perhaps a fault in the right direction. It 
would certainly not do violence to the spirit of 
the Scriptures if the mother should tell a Bible 
story about kittens instead of sheep, if the child 
were familiar with kittens and did not know any- 
thing about sheep. We always have the privilege 
of expanding where the original is terse, or em- 
phasizing what the original takes for granted, 
and of using the imagination, especially in re- 
sponse to the little child's questions. 

As to the method of Bible stories, perhaps the 
best single word to speak is that one should tell 
such stories as folklore. Such they really were, 
and as such they should be given to the child. 
Let the mother, in telling Old Testament stories, 
imagine herself an aged Hebrew nurse, handing 
down the traditions of her race to a circle of 
eager-eyed children. Let her tell such stories as 
if she were sitting in a window overlooking the 
events that were at that very moment taking 
place, of which the children could not possibly 
have any knowledge except what she makes clear 
to them. 

As to the purpose of Bible story-telling to a 
child, Mrs. Houghton gives us a wise word when 



" The old Bible stories are skillfully told in a collection 
entitled "Bible Stories and Character-Building," published 
by Tlie University Society. 



she says that it is "in order to give a religious 
meaning to all the e.xperiences of his early life." 
Beginning at about three, the story is to be told 
in its simplest possible outline and as much as 
may be in the Bible words. At about five, an ele- 
mentary unfolding of its spiritual meaning may 
come in answer to the child's questions. In the 
story of Cain and Abel, for instance, it is pos- 
sible to give the narrative a religious meaning 
which shall touch the experiences of the Child 
in two ways: by showing the interest which God 
has in the spirit of love, in the gifts of His chil- 
dren and by reminding the little one of the joys 
which come from taming the young lion of 
hatred before it grows big and strong, and of 
the sorrow and pain which follow if this lion 
grows strong and cruel. 

Church-going and Sunday-school 

It would seem to be a wise practice for chil- 
dren to begin the habit of church-going at about 
the time when they begin to go to public school. 
Even before this age most children are eager to 
attend. It seems better to keep church-going as 
a special privilege and reward for good behavior 
until the age of reasonably steady habits. In 
many churches the rigor of the long service is 
mitigated by a special nursery for little children, 
conducted during a part or the whole of the 
service. There is no doubt an impressiveness 
even in a beautiful service, which the child does 
not understand, which becomes a wholesome and 
precious influence through life. There are some 
children who are so nervous that early church- 
going does not seem advisable. Church should 
never seem to a child like imprisonment. The 
habit should certainly begin as a privilege and 
delight and then should become a duty, but not 
an unpleasant one. 

Many of our religious leaders feel that the 
beginning of the fifth year, rather than before, 
is the earliest time that a child may wisely attend 
Sunday-school. Before that year he is incapable 
of class instruction, and the habit of inattention, 
formed then, is a barrier to religious education 
later. Just as public schools, even the kinder- 
garten, prefer not to take children until they 
are five, so, perhaps, the Sunday-school will some 
day follow their example. Before that time the 
child needs individual instruction and should 
receive his religious training from his mother. 



"The childhood of to-day challenges the Church to pro- 
duce its joys." — William E. Gardner. 



THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

CHILD* 



OF A CATHOLIC 



JOSEPHINE BROWNSON 



"As the twig is bent so the tree will ^fovv" is a 
saying as familiar as it is full of truth. Unless, 
then, we wish to rear a race of agnostics, how 
date we shoulder the responsibility of neglecting 
to make the child's religious impressions its 
strongest and earliest? 

I know of a boy who when five years of 
age could discuss an airplane with considerable 
intelligence, and yet his mother had not then 
taught him the "Our Father." She said that he 
was too young to understand sudh things. Now, 
as a matter of fact, small children have a natural 
aptitude for spiritual truths which is woefully 
lacking in some maturer minds. 

If a child of five years is unable to speak, how 
anxious his parents are ! Should they not be 
equally an.xious if at that age he is unable to 
speak to his Heavenly Father? 

Early Opportunities for Memorizing 

Let us see to it that the religious training keeps 
pace with the training in other matters. Thus 
when we teach words, let the first be the holy 
names of Jesus and Mary; when we teach the 
child to wave and clap its hands, let us teach the 
Sign of the Cross; when we teach the repetition 
of a number of words, let us teach gradually the 
words of the Our Father and of the Hail Mary ; 
when we sing lullabies, let us sing hymns to the 
Infant Jesus; when we show pictures of flowers 
and birds and call them by their names, let us 
show pictures of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, 
St. Joseph, and the Angels, and call them by 
their names; when we would read Mother Goose, 
let us read Catholic nursery-rhymes; when we 
would read fairy-tales, let us read Bible stories. 

I remember hearing a little boy, two and a 
half years old, recite at a Christmas party the 
whole of the rhyme, " 'Twas the Night Before 
Christmas." Is it too much to expect a child of 
the same age to be able to make the Sign of the 
Cross and say the Our Father and the Hail 
Mary? 

Then let us teach the child to kneel and with 
folded hands say its prayers morning and evening. 



It will readily assume the attitude of prayer if 
it has watched its mother reverently pray. It is 
the living lesson of the mother's example that 
must precede the effort to train the child. Grad- 
ually, we can add these words addressed to its 
guardian angel : 

"Angel of God, my guardian dear. 
To whom His lovo cntnmits me here. 
Ever this day be at my side 
To light and guard, to rule and guide." 

The next prayer might well be the Morning 
Offering. We can teach it in some such simple 
form as, "Dear Jesus, I give Thee everything 
I shall think or say or do or suffer to-day." Per- 
haps we can do the child no greater good than 
to form in it the habit of transforming its daily 
actions into prayers. This the j\Ioming Offering 
does, and we can frequently renew it by- say- 
ing aloud little aspirations w'hich the child will 
readily repeat. Teach it to say in all the events 
of its small life, such as a bruise on the head 
or a cut on the finger, ".'MI for Thee, my Jesus." 
Then, not only for a brief moment morning and 
evening, will its childish thought go heavenward, 
but its whole life will be made radiant and kept 
innocent by being lived in the presence of God. 

Another beautiful practice for the children to 
learn is the pausing a moment every time the 
clock strikes in order to whisper, "Agonizing 
Heart of Jesus, have mercy on the dying and the 
dead. May the souls of the faithful departed, 
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen." 

The First Sacred Observances 

All these little practices are powerful helps 
for the child to lead a life of faith. Thus the 
lighting of a blessed candle and the frequent 
making of the Sign of the Cross during times of 
special peril teach the child to seek God's help in 
danger. 

When the child awakes in the morning let us 
teach it to look at some picture of the Infant 
Jesus we have placed over its bed and to say, 
"Good-morning, dear Jesus !" Again, at night. 



* This earnest paper, with its emphasis upon reverence and careful teaching, will be found instructive hy niairy non» 
Catholic mothers. 

3.^8 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



339 



let its last words be, "Good-night, dear Jesus, 
good-night !" 

In the sixth year, we can begin to teach the 
Apostle's Creed and the Act of Contrition. The 
Acts of Faith. Hope, and Love can follow. 

The smallest child can wear a blessed medal, 
and when it is old enough to understand, we can 
explain how the scapular stands for the uniform 
of our Blessed Mother and that if one wears it 
faithfully through life, she will bless and care 
for him as her special child. 

And how proud a little child will be to have 
a gayly colored rosary all his oRvn. He can hang 
it on his bed, carry it to church, and, little by 
little, learn to use it. During certain seasons of 
the church ^-ear we can gather the children for 
additional prayer and reciting the rosary aloud, 
and thus teach them the beautiful mysteries of 
the life of Christ. 

Follow the Pathway of the Church Year 

The Church fills the life of the smallest child 
as well as the life of the greatest philosopher. 
What better than to have the children follow her 
through the various seasons of her year. Thus 
during Advent, we can tell them of the coming 
of the little King, teach them to prepare His 
crib by acts of self-denial, and to long for Him 
by frequently saying. "Come, Lord Jesus, and do 
not delay!" Then January is the month of the 
Holy Childhood. Give them a desire to imitate 
the obedience and truthfulness of the Infant 
Jesus, a Child like them. 

Lent usually begins in February. We can 
speak of the Passion, take them to church to 
make the Way of the Cross, teach them to give 
up candy and make other small acts of self- 
conquest, to be kind and gentle, and to put some 
of their pennies in the poor-box. During Holy 
\\'eek, let us show them the church draped in 
mourning because of grief over the death of 
Christ. Then the glory of the Easter, the altar 
decked in gold and white, the Paschal candle, 
which will be kept near the high altar for forty 
days, until the day Christ will go back to His 
Heavenly Father. 

Nor should we forget dear St. Joseph during 
March, w'hen we can teach the children to say 
some little prayer in his honor every day and 
to beg of him the grace of a happy death. 

Then the beautiful month of May, when the 
children can gather flowers for our Blessed 
Mother's altar and recite together the rosary and 
sing a hymn in her honor. 

June follows with its lesson of love for the 
Sacred Heart of Christ that loves us so much. 

July comes with its devotion to the Precious 



Blood. August and September take up the won- 
derful miracle of Christ's public life. 

October is beautiful with its devotion to the 
holy angels. Let us speak to the children of their 
Guardian Angels and teach each to look upon 
his angel as his strongest, best, and dearest life- 
long friend and companion. Let us speak of the 
purity and beauty of the angels and of the great 
care they take of us. 

November is sad in its devotion to the Poor 
Souls in Purgatory. It will be easy to enlist the 
sympathy of the children and to arouse their 
longing to send some poor soul onward to Heaven 
by their prayers and little sacrifices. 

Sacred Symbols in the Home 

Let us not forget the power of music. Chil- 
dren quickly pick up the songs they hear, and 
we all know how snatches of song learned in 
babyhood cling to one through life. Why not 
have a little selection of hymns that we can sing 
to them? 

A great stimulus to devotion is the building 
and care of a little altar in the home. To attach 
a shelf or box to the wall and drape it with 
cheesecloth is a simple matter. Have on the 
altar one or two pictures and, if possible, a statue 
of the Sacred Heart, or of Our Lady, or of the 
Blessed Mother holding the divine Infant. 

When flowers are in season, the children will 
delight in arranging them on the altar. Let them 
also keep a little light burning, at least on Fri- 
days, in memory of Christ's death, and on Satur- 
days in honor of Our Lady, and on great feast 
days. Have near the altar a receptable for holy 
water and teach them how to g3 to church and 
get holy water when the supply gives out. 

Gather the children about the altar for morn- 
ing and night prayers. 

At Christmas, have a miniature Bethlehem. 
In a corner of a room, or in an open fireplace, 
make rocks of coarse brown paper and sprinkle 
them with sparkling snow from the ten-cent store. 
Form a cave and place in it a manger holding 
the Infant Jesus, and arrange the figures of the 
Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, the Shepherds, etc. 
Let the children save their pennies and buy their 
own set of figures. 

Teach Reverence in God's House 

The child can not be too young to be taken to 
church for short visits to the Blessed Sacrament. 
Even if he can not yet take notice, the blessing 
of Christ will be upon him. When two or three 
years old. we can show him where Jesus lives, 
speak of the sanctuary lamp, etc 



340 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Children will learn reverence for God and holy 
things from the carefulness with which we teach 
them to make the Sign of the Cross with holy 
water before entering the church and to genuflect 
before the altar; from the reverence of our atti- 
tude in prayer ; from the fact that they must not 
turn around or speak in church. We can give 
them a love for going to church by letting them 
visit the different shrines and there telling them 
a word about the saint each one honors, by letting 
them walk slowly along the Way of the Cross 
while we answer the questions they will surely 
propound. They will delight in the music and 
incense of Benediction and in watching proces- 
sions through the church. 

And when the child is old enough to go to 
Mass, his curiosity will find food for many ques- 
tions. He will be impressed by the lighted can- 
dles, the altar-boys, the pouring into the chalice 
of the water and the wine, the vestments of the 
priest, and the different colors that are used, ac- 
cording to the feast or spirit of the Church. 

.'\nd then, above all, we can tell of the great 
miracle that takes place upon the altar. 

The child will learn reverence also (and if we 
do not teach him reverence, all our religious in- 
struction is in vain) from our manner of speak- 
ing of holy things. Are not many of the remarks 
of children, which are repeated by their elders as 
marvelous examples of originality and intelli- 
gence, deplorably lacking in reverence? And is 
not the oft'hand, careless manner in which holy 
things have been explained to them the cause ? 
We say they are so young that no irreverence 
can be meant. True, but all unconsciously they 
are learning irreverence instead of reverence. 

By these various means our children will grow 
up in an atmosphere which is as necessary for 
their spiritual growth as is air for their physical 
growth. And without ever having heard of a 
Catechism, their hearts will be prepared to re- 
ceive the fuller and more definite knowledge of 
their faith which will come with riper years. 

Dramatic Play and Nursery Rhymes 

The children will show great ingenuity, too, 
in dramatizing the Bible stories we read, or better 
still, in telling them. How they will enjoy play- 
ing David meeting the giant, Judith slaying Holo- 
fernes, Daniel discovering footprints in the 
ashes, the messengers 'bringing to Job word of 
his losses, etc. And they can form tableaux of 
Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, of Joseph tell- 
ing Pharaoh the meaning of his dreams, etc. 

A valuable asset to the nursery will be a finely 
illustrated book of Catholic nursery rhymes. 
Thus a mere baby can learn of God and of His 



creation and of the birth of Christ, etc., by little 
jingles. A single quotation will suffice: 

"One cold, starry night, 

A long time ago. 
From Heaven above 

To the earth below. 
Came little Lord Jesus 

And laid Himself down 
On straw in a manger 

In Bethlehem town. 

"And Mary, His Mother 

Did kneel by His side. 
And Joseph was there 

To guard and to guide; 
And angels bowed low 

And wondered to see 
The great God of Heaven, 

A Child so like me!" 

The Use of Sacred Pictures in the Home 

Nothing makes a stronger appeal to children 
than pictures. Have in the nursery pictures of 
our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and 
the Guardian Angel. Have a wall set apart for 
these. To place them next to profane pictures 
leads to irreverence. 

The Brown or Perry penny-pictures are very 
beautiful and can 'be easily mounted and framed. 
The Birth of Christ, Jesus Blessing Little Chil- 
dren, a Madonna and the Crucifi.xion will attract. 
Children three years of age, looking at a crucifix, 
have expressed love and sympathy we ourselves 
could envy. It is a mistake of the present day to 
keep away from them all suggestion of pain and 
sorrow. This makes for weakness and selfish- 
ness. And as nothing can be more beautiful than 
a child's grief over the sufferings of Christ, so 
nothing can be more potent in beautifying its 
character. There is no danger of a normal 
child's becoming over-sympathetic. 

The silent lesson of the crucifixion on the wall 
is a strong factor in the child's religious training. 

The penny-pictures are far more beautiful than 
many expensive ones, which are too often mere 
caricatures. Is it not strange how we show 
children a hideous picture and ask them to love 
the one it represents ? What would be the result 
were it not for their faith and love that pierce 
through the mask? 

If you can not procure these pictures in your 
home town, write for a catalog to George P. 
Brown & Co., 38 Lovett Street, Beverly. Mass. 
Also, in the front of the little book, "To the Heart 
of the Child," published by the Encyclopedia Press 
of New York, is a selected list of these pictures 
illustrating events in the Old and New Testa- 
ments. The numbers are given by which they 
can be ordered. Such a list is valuable, for it 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



341 



requires much time and experimenting to procure 
the desired pictures by means of a catalog alone. 

These pictures can be used in various ways. 
The children may buy them with their own pen- 
nies and make with them valuable scrapbooks. 
I have found a loose-leaf cover that holds the set 
nicely. The pictures are clamped in. which is 
preferable to punching holes. If Father or Mother 
explains each night one of these pictures to the 
children, the latter will never forget the lessons 
so pleasantly given : neither will there be need 
for distinct Catechism lessons until the children 
are older. All they need to know the pictures 
can be made to tell. 

Again, these pictures can be used in a radiopti- 
con. requiring an electric bulb but no curtain, if 
the wall is light. The radiopticon can be used 
as a treat, say on the first Friday of the month. 
We can show the pictures we have already spoken 
about and call on the children to give the story. 
Or. at each lesson, we can keep on the screen 
the entire time the picture illustrating the story 
we are telling. Even though we use these devices 
for the older children, the smaller ones will gain 
as much as though we appealed directly to them. 
We all know how surprisingly little children ab- 
sorb what they see and hear. I remember going 
to a house to prepare a grown person for Bap- 



tism. A tiny, sickly child stayed quietly in the 
room. Later, her mother told me how she had 
overheard her teaching her doll the lessons I 
had given. 

Bible Story Telling in the Home 

But perhaps the parents themselves would like 
to refresh their memory of Bible stories learned 
long ago. The Extension Press of Chicago pub- 
lishes a book called "Catholic Bible Stories." 
These are taken from both the Old and New 
Testaments and are filled with illustrations. This 
hook is compiled for small children and prepares 
them for an early First Confession and First 
Holy Communion. Children from five to twelve 
years of age will revel in these stories, which are 
more thrilling than any others that can be found. 

Why not establish a story-hour in the home, 
in the late afternoon or evening? Read a story 
a day and when you have read them all. read 
the favorite ones again. Do not let the children 
form the bad habit of always wanting something 
new. It is ruinous to their minds, which should 
be fed upon the best, oft-repeated. 

When the children have outgrown this book. 
I would recommend "To the Heart of the Child," 
mentioned above. It will interest them and give 
them a deeper, fuller knowledge of their religion.* 



THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF A JEWISH CHILD t 



BY 



MRS. ROSE BARLOW WEINMAN 



The poet has said, 

"Trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home," 

and we Jews would extend the glorious line by 
saying. "To God, who is our home," for from 
the moment the babe opens his eyes he looks upon 
a God-permeated world, or, as one of our sages 
of old has put it, "In the beginning, God." 

The birth of a child is not only an event of 
great happiness, but one linked closely with 
religion. For this blessing prayers of gratitude 
are uttered, and with gifts the poor and the 
Synagogue are remembered. Also, as is well 
known, a religious ceremony of profound sig- 
nificance, the rite of circumcision, accompanies 



the bestowal of a sacred name upon the baby boy. 
Keenly yet with great rejoicing do the parents 
feel the holy trust, and the Jewish mother, like 
Hannah of old. would gladly dedicate her child 
to the service of God. 

The bud unfolds, and as the little one develops 
in health and strength the watchful parents in- 
dulge in the thought that he will one day be a 
fearless fighter for God; and the mother, as she 
guides the first unsteady, tottering footsteps, 
thrills with joy, cherishing the hope that the 
Heavenly Father may lead her child in the paths 
of righteousness for His Name's sake. 

Before ever the babe can prattle he knows 
about God. 

"See the pretty flowers! God made all the 



• Now turn to "The Catholic Mother and her Child." on page 721. 

t How rich and delightful is the treasury of Jewish traditions and festivals, and how useful for the religious training 
of children, will be a surprise to many who read this paper by an unusually intelligent Jewish mother. 



342 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



flowers, and the birds, and the trees. He made 
the water, the sun and the moon, the rain, the 
lightning and the thunder, too. God made every- 
thing," we tell him. 

A young Jewish mother once related this inci- 
dent to me : 

"We were enjoying our daily walk along a 
shady path," she said, "my baby boy (not quite two 
years old), tlie nursemaid, and I, when the maid, 
in telling about a little girl of her acquaintance, 
exclaimed, 'But she does ask so many questions ! 
Why, the other day she asked her mother who 
made God.' 'Nellie,' I remonstrated, somewhat 
startled, 'I wish you had ndt spoken in that way 
in the presence of Baby.' But Baby, perhaps in 
defense of his beloved nurse, or was it desire to 
answer the great question, piped out, 'God made 
herself.' To be sure we were amused and sur- 
prised, but can you doubt that I was indeed happy 
to know that at his tender age he had begun to 
realize the power of God?" 

"Out of the mouths of babes come wondrous 
truths," I answered. "If we could but hear them, 
or hearing them, deal with our children in 
accordance with the grand simplicity of their 
receptive minds." 

"Muvvcr," one baby lisped, "when you came 
up to Heaven how did j'ou know to pick me out?" 

Another little boy whom I knew intimately, 
like most children, thrived on rhyme and fairy- 
stories, taking great delight in hearing them told 
and retold, even incorporating them in his own 
conduct and experience. 

"A big liear came in my garden and played 
with me to-day," he said. 

"You dear little boy, are you sure ?" I asked. 

"Well, not to-day, but when I were a lady he 
did." 

From the age of three until after his sixth 
birthday, the child's frequent use of that expres- 
sion caused much wonderment, and although at 
times we were sorely puzzled, we never once 
questioned that his words, "When I were a 
lady," indicated certain unusual or imagined ex- 
perience. 

But one day we told him how Adam and Eve 
were sent from the Garden of Eden, and that 
while an angel guarded the tree of life he showed 
the way that they should go. 

"He," ci'ied the child in wide-eyed wonder, 
"He ! Oh, I thought all angels were ladies." And 
he hid his face in shame. 

These little ones in their direct and simple way 
arrange a world all of their own, and view that 
world, to be sure, with their own eyes. To the 
Jewish child all the world is Jewish, and no 
effort is made or required to connect the God 



idea with that of the child's Jewish origin; for 
they seem to be inextricably interwoven. 

"This thing happened simply of itself. 
Just as the night is created when the day goes." 

Like a chameleon, he takes the color of his sur- 
roundings : now he is the bird in the song, hop- 
ping, flying, singing praises to his God on high; 
now a fairy, or a lion, or a giant. To-day he is 
Noah leading the animals into the ark. Some- 
times the animals are naughty and will not walk 
in a straight line. Or he may be Jacob sleeping 
in the desert on his pillow of stone. Oh, the 
wonderful ladder reaching from earth to Heaven 
with the beautiful fairy angels on it ! He would 
like to play with them. 

His mother has told him the story with a sense 
of loving ownership, even as it was told to her. 
Father also paints the heroes of Israel in glowing 
colors. Does he never weary of relating the 
battle between David and Goliath — the victory 
of Israel over the Philistines? Or the story of 
Moses as he led the children of Israel over dry 
land in the midst of the Red Sea? 

"Jew," "Israel," "God !" These are familiar 
words to the Jewish child, words heightened and 
colored by love, pride, and a subtle sense of be- 
longing.^ 

God is near. He loves good little boys and 
girls, and Jewish boys and girls should try to be 
good, try to obey Father and Mother, to love 
Brother and Sister, to be gentle in their speech, 
to permit their friends to share their toys, to be 
kind to animals ; in fact, to endeavor to please 
God in every way. He loves all children, for 
thev 'belong to Him. All the world belongs to 
God. 

The Jewish Home Is a Shrine 

With such impressions promptly registering 
themselves, a Jewish consciousness is slowly but 
surely developing in the child mind, and the little 
one, with implicit faith in the words and acts 
of his beloved parents, takes much for granted. 
Then, too, in their religious life the members 
of a Jewish family act in unison, even the little 
one soon rejoices in the fact that he is a part of 
the whole. 

Seated with the family at meals, he hears his 
father day after day utter the words, "Blessed 
art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Uni- 
verse, who causest the earth to yield food for all." 
Words, mere words, are they for several years, 
yet so frequently was he wont to hear them, that 
they become a needful accompaniment to every 
meal, and as time goes on, their meaning is en- 
graved upon his heart. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



343 



Is not this home the child's first shrine, the 
first akar where, with Father and Mother, he 
may worship ? He, too, holds communion with 
God ; for in the evening, as the mother tenderly 
folds him to rest with loving words and quieting 
thoughts, he feels a beautiful something within 
him and is encouraged in his desire to speak to 
God. This is one child's first prayer : "Dear 
God, I love you, and I love my Daddy and my 
Mamma. Good-night." 

The Mother Talks with Her Little Ones 

And now, in the daily contact with her child, 
through means of his duties and his play, his 
pets and toys, the morning strolls, the loveliness 
of Nature, through the beauty of favorite stories, 
of pictures and verses, and countless other golden 
opportunities, through every benign and beauti- 
ful influence which environs him, the thoughtful 
mother attempts to satisfy the yearning, out- 
reaching tendency of his child nature. 

She speaks to him of the goodness of God. 
No, we can not see God's face, but we know Him 
through His love and kindness. Because God 
is kind, mother is kind. Because mother loves 
her little boy she does everything in her power 
for his good. "I love you, Mother," the child 
exclairrrs again and again, and in her wisdom she 
tries to have him translate that declaration into 
action and conduct, for love must be meaningful. 
And when we tell God that we love Him, we 
must show our love by our deeds ; we must do 
our very best for Him; because He cares for us 
and watches over us day and night. 

"By slow degrees, by more and more" these 
thoughts are given to the child, until he is ready 
and eager for this simple prayer : 

"I thank Thee, O God, for the blessings of this 
day. Thou art my Shepherd ; I shall not want. 
Thou dost neither sleep nor slumber, and wilt pro- 
tect me all the night. In peace I lay me down to 
sleep. Bless my home and all who are dear to me. 
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 
I am in thy care, O God, when I sleep and when I 
wake. Amen." 

The Sabbath in the Jewish Home 

Every pious Jewisli family hails with delight 
the celebration of the Sabbath, and the very 
young children, too, are impressed by this day, 
if only in respect to its unlikeness to other days; 
for the ways of the household are changed. All 
activity has ceased, even the "man-servant and 
the maid-servant" do no work. All is festive in 
appearance and in holiday attire, and though 
peace and quiet prevail, the children are happy 
and expectant. 

On Friday, preceding the evening meal, the 



Sabbath is ushered in with a religious service called 
the Kiddush, or sanctification. The ceremony is 
begun by the kindling of the Sabbath lights and 
by a fervent prayer to God that the home may 
be consecrated by His light, which signifies love 
and truth, peace and good-w'ill. The Sabbath is 
welcomed as a messenger of joy and praise, and 
while workday thoughts are put aside, a calm, 
serene spirit of divine love hovers over all. 

In praise of the good housewife and mother, 
the father of the family reads from the thirty- 
first chapter of the Book of Proverbs that glori- 
ous tribute to the good woman "whose price is 
far above rubies, in whom the heart of her hus- 
band trusteth : who bringeth her bread from afar 
and riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth 
food to her household. Give her of the fruit of 
her hands and let her works praise her in the 
gates." The father now lifts the cup of wine 
as a symbol of joy, and renders thanks to his 
God for the blessings of the past week, for life 
and tlie light of love, for home and friendship, 
for strength to work and for the Sabbath day 
of rest. With these thoughts the cup of wine is 
passed around the table and each one in turn 
drinks from it. Then they partake of bread 
dipped in salt. The beautiful service concludes 
as the father lays his hand upon the head of 
each child in silent blessing. 

At the meal good cheer abounds, each en- 
deavoring to please the other, and all waiting and 
attending on the guest in their midst. 

To suggest that the little child participates in 
these ceremonies with more than vague, unformed 
impressions were indeed error; for only as the 
words and acts and symbols touch him in his 
association of ideas, in his daily experience, in 
his environment, can they come to be a part of 
his thought and feeling, and in time this comes 
to pass — a knowledge and feeling of Judaism, 
which is a vital thing throughout the years. 
Often, indeed, we have heard men in their old 
age declare that from the dim past they ever see 
the glimmer of the Sahbath lights, and feel the 
touch of their father's hand in blessing upon their 
head. 

The Jewish Passover 

Not only is the Sabbath day thus set aside for 
worship and prayer, but there are many appointed 
days of the year when the members of the family 
are united by the bonds of worship and of love, 
days devoted to thanksgiving and praise to God, 
to quiet enjojTnent and to acts of charity and 
kindness. 

Especially does the great Feast of Passover 
appeal to the children. It is unique. It gives full 



344 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



play to all the poetry and heroism of their nature. 
How wonderful is the unleavened bread which 
they eat and the thoughts it calls to their minds I 

There is the little baby alone among the bul- 
rushes ! Will no one ever come to the rescue ? 
What joy they feel when his own mother clasps 
him in her arms ! And then to think of his life 
in the palace with the Egyptian princess. Was 
it a fairy palace? But on learning more of 
Egypt and her cruelty to the children of Israel, 
their hearts are filled with pity. 

The scene changes, and Moses, their hero, is 
a shepherd in the land of Midian. How tenderly 
he carries the little lamb back to the flock. And 
then the strange beauty of the burning bush, 
out of which sounds the voice of God ! 

For many years the bush is a real bush and 
the voice a real voice, just as they should be: 
nor does aught of their divine power pass from 
them when the Jew comes to feel that the fire 
is a fire of holy purpose to save and to serve, and 
similarly that the beautiful ceremonials of the 
Passover are but object lessons used to tell of 
God's mercy and providence, of the return of 
Spring, the urge of new life, the birth of free- 
dom and liberty. 

As the week of the Passover approaches, the 
inmates of the home of the pious orthodox Jew 
industriously prepare for its coming. All leaven 
must be removed and special china and utensils 
for cookery brought out. Each child in the fam- 
ily proffers his help, with a kindness persistent 
though impeding. 

Passover eve arrives, the evening which ushers 
in the feast of Unleavened Bread, ever observed 
as a memorial of God's deliverance of the Israel- 
ites from Egyptian bondage. This festival of 
Freedom is celebrated by a beautiful and impres- 
sive home ceremonial called the Seder service, 
one in which the child participates with real joy. 
The Seder forms a bond of union not only among 
the members of one family, but between every 
Jew and his brother Jew throughout the world, 
for do not its prayers, its songs, and its tradi- 
tions tell of joys and sorrows common to all 
Israel? 

On this night of the feast, the head of the 
household, or one invited to act for him, con- 
ducts the service, reading in both Hebrew and the 
vernacular. 

The table presents an unusual appearance, for 
not only is it in holiday dress, with flowers, 
sparkling glass and silver, but upon it appear the 
articles peculiar to the Seder. There are pieces 
of unleavened bread, or matcaJi, as it is called, 
a roasted bone of lamb, an egg, also roasted, a 
dish of bitter herbs (horseradish), some parsley 



or watercress, wine (an unfermented concoction 
of raisins), and charoscth, a mixture of minced 
almonds, apples, and raisins. 

"With song and praise, and with the beautiful 
symbols of our feast, let us renew the memories 
of our wonderful past, and take to heart its 
stirring lessons," says the father. They drink 
of the festive cup and sing their songs of glad- 
ness. 

All are given a bit of parsley or watercress, 
and they partake of it saying, "Blessed art Thou, 
O Lord, Creator of the fruit of the earth." 

The reader raises the plate of unleavened 
bread: "Lo, this is the Bread of Affliction, and 
though God's providence has freed us, may we 
ever be mindful of those who are not free, and 
endeavor to aid all who are oppressed. Let those 
who are hungry come and eat, those who are 
poor, share with us our Passover." 

It was written, "And thou shalt tell thy son in 
that day," therefore the Seder Service includes 
an explanation to the children of the festival and 
its celebration. 

The Explanation to the Children 

"Why is this night different from all other 
nights?" asks the young child, as he views the 
strange objects on the table. 

"This night is God's watch-night over the 
children of Israel. He watched over our fore- 
fathers in Egypt and delivered them from slavery. 
He guards us continually, and to-night we praise 
and thank Him for His protecting care. He was 
our Redeemer and Deliverer, so that we may be 
His messengers unto all the peoples of the earth." 

"What is the meaning of the Pesach?" another 
child inquires, and he is told that the word signi- 
fies Passover: that God passed over and spared 
the House of Israel not only in dark Egypt, but 
again and again has He saved His people from 
destruction. 

"And the lamb bone?" calls out another. 

"Ah, the Paschal Lamb reminds us of God's 
command to Moses to sacrifice a lamb before the 
departure from Egypt. The lamb was sacred to 
the Egyptians, and when the Israelites obeyed 
the words of Moses, they struck the blow for 
freedom." 

"What is the meaning of the unleavened 
bread?" 

"The matzah, or bread of affliction, is the sym- 
bol of divine help. When our ancestors were 
driven from Egypt and forced to depart in haste, 
they carried no food but the unleavened dough 
in their kneading troughs. They did not starve, 
however, for this dough dried into unleavened 
bread. Seven days -we. eat of the unleavened 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



345 



bread as a sign of God's loving care and of His 
power to save. 

"The salt water, the bitter herbs, and tlie 
charoscth — all are tokens of the hardships en- 
dured by the Israelites before their deliverance." 

"But the charoscth is sweet," the children say, 
and to their minds no hardship, until they are 
informed that its appearance suggests the clay 
and bits of straw used in the making of bricks 
by our forefathers when they toiled in Egypt. 

"And the egg?" 

"The egg speaks of life and faith in immortal 
life." 

Fun at Passover Time 

At the conclusion of the first part of the ser- 
vice, the table is laid and a delicious meal is 
served, which is welcomed and keenly relished 
by all, for has not the appetite been whetted by 
waiting, and has not the wife and mother devoted 
much time, thought, and effort to its preparation? 
Psalms, poems, quaint folk-songs, and refrains 
intersperse the entire service. What a lilt has 
this old nursery rhyme: 

CHAD GADYA (A KID, A KID) 

"A kid, a kid, my father bought 
For two pieces of money — 
A kid, a kid. 

"Then came the cat and ate the kid 
That my father bought 
For two pieces of money. 
Then came the dog and bit the cat. 
That ate the kid. 
That my father bought, 
For two pieces of money, etc. 



"Then came the Holy One. blessed be He, and 
killed the Angel of Death, 
That killed the butcher. 
That slew the o.x, 
That drank the water. 
That quenched the fire, 
That burned the staff, 
That beat the dog, 
Tliat bit the cat. 
That ate the kid. 
That my father bought 
For two pieces of money." 

"It is just like 'The House that Jack Built.' or 
'The Old Woman and Her Pig,' " whisper the 
children, one to the other, as with friendly recog- 
nition they join in the refrain. 

These young commentators are in agreement 
with the learned ones who designate it a Jewish 
nursery rhyme modeled after an old French song. 
Other there are who affirm it to be a legend show- 
ing how Israel (the one only kid) was oppressed 



by the other nations of the ancient world, and 
how the Holy One came to his rescue. 

I shall quote in part from another folk-song 
which is written in riddle form. The riddle, as 
undoubtedly many recall, was employed as a 
means of entertainment at the table of Jewish 
families. This song shares popularity with the 
"Chad Gadya." 

"Who knows One? 
I know One — 
One is the God of the World. 

"Who knows Two? 
I know Two — 

Two are the Tables of the Covenant. 
Two Tables of the Covenant — 
One God of the World." 

This form is continued through the number 
thirteen. It is considered appropriate for the 
Seder, as it lays stress upon the fundamental 
truth in Judaism, "God is One." 

"Who knows Thirteen? 
I know Thirteen — 

There are Thirteen Attributes of God (Ex 34:6, 7) 
Thirteen .Attributes ; 
Twelve Tribes ; 

Eleven Stars (Joseph's Dream) ; 
Ten Commandments ; 
Nine Festivals ; 
Eight Lights of Hanukah; 
Seven days of the week; 
Six days of Creation; 
Five Books of Moses ; 
Four Mothers of Israel; 
Three Patriarchs ; 
Two Tables of the Covenant — 
One God of the World." 

"And it Came to Pass at Midnight" is the name 
of a hymn recounting instances of divine deliver- 
ance from the early days of Abraham to the 
great deliverance in the future. The poet Heine 
found inspiration in this song: 

"Unto God let praise be brought 
For the wonders He hath wrought 
(Response) At the solemn hour of midnight. 

"All the Earth was sunk in night 
When God said, 'Let there be light' 
(Response) Thus the day was formed from mid- 
night. 

"To the Patriarch God revealed 
The true faith so long concealed 
(Response) By the darkness of the midnight. 

"But this truth was long obscured 
By the slavery endured 
(Response) In the black Egyptian midnight," 

etc. 

The meal concludes with a bit of pleasantry. 
One-half of a bit of matcah. which has been re- 
served for the Aphikomon, a Greek word mean- 



346 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



ing "after-meal," or dessert, has been slyly drawn 
away by one of the children and concealed from 
view, the reader all the while feigning ignorance. 
Finally, he notes the loss, and not until he prom- 
ises a gift, however trifling, does the offender 
bring forth the missing cake. "A game of paying 
forfeits," you will say. 

In this brief account of the Seder service much 
has been omitted, but the Jewish child is sure 
to cry out, "Remember Elijah !" Many years 
will elapse before he can understand that Elijah, 
the prophet, the hero of the Passover, represents 
the protector of the home, the lover of parents 
and children, the messenger of redemption ; but 
for the present he awaits the taking of the fourth 
cup of wine, and the opening of the door by his 
brother. Yes, when he is older, perhaps, he may 
be allowed to rise and open the door with the 
hope that Elijah may come in. Should a stranger 
or a friend enter the room at that time, it is 
needless to say that his place at the table awaits 
him and that he is most hospitably received. 
Little wonder that many a poem has been in- 
spired, many a beautiful tale told, because the 
door of hope, of love, of religious fervor, is 
opened to freedom and to justice that April night. 

The Passover ! It is a joyful feast, a week 
devoted to memories of the past, praise and 
thanksgiving for the present and for the future. 
Each day does the house resound with songs, 
hymns or psalms : 

"O, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; 
For His mercy endureth forever," 

or this festival-song with its stirring traditional 
air: 

"God of might, God of right. 
Thee we give all glory ; 
Thine all praise in these days 

As in ages hoary. 
When we hear, year by year. 
Freedom's wondrous story." 

All this the little one receives, and were an 
observer to discover an added sense in the Jewish 
child, he would find that one to be the sense of 
religion. 

The Jewish Harvest Festival 

In the religious e.xperience of the Jews, history 
and Nature unite to form the background of the 
great festivals. Just as the Passover developed 
from the commemoration of the exodus from 
Egypt, and the ripening of the early barley crop 
in the land of Canaan into a festival of freedom 
and of springtime, so a reminder of the years 
when the children of Israel dwelt in booths in 
the wilderness, together with gratitude for the 



latter harvest in the conquered land, gave rise 
to the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of the In- 
gathering, a festival of Autumn. 

Can we doubt that the little child glows with 
interest and pleasure when, in celebration of 
these events, he may spend some time each day 
with his dear ones in a leafy arbor or booth 
(sHccah), which is erected as an adjoining room 
to their home? In this frail structure with its 
partly open roof the people of the household 
take their meals, study, and receive their friends. 
Here, with song and prayer, they give thanks 
to God for His wondrous providence. How 
supremely happy the little one feels to sit in this 
bower of green, red, and yellow leaves, with 
clusters of grapes and shining apples here and 
there ! Upon seeing the dark sky and twinkling 
stars through the roof he asks, "Are the holes 
in the top so God can hear our prayers better?" 

Some day a thousand meanings for this leafy 
tent will come to him: his own frailty, his de- 
pendence upon God, the openness that life should 
spell, the open hand, the open heart, the open 
mind, the upward look, the reverent dismantling 
of the structure with a fervent desire to move on 
and on, to follow the "cloud by day and the fire 
by night." But now he needs to know only that 
the loving Father has blessed him with all good 
things, and that he in turn should be helpful 
and kind to others. 

"Little hands be free in giving, 
Little hearts be glad to serve," 

thus is he taught to sing in gratitude to Him 
"whose kindness endureth forever." 

We have seen that though we are concerned 
with the commemoration of very significant 
events, their observance never fails to create a 
place for the little child. "Thou shalt teach them 
diligently unto thy children," uttered back in the 
dim ages, still sounds a clear, insistent note in 
the hearts and homes of Israel's people ; so we 
dare to hope that the celebration of the Sabbath, 
the Passover, the Feast of Booths, leaves a 
marked effect upon the character of our children, 
and that Hanukah, a feast of "mirth and joy," 
holds a high place in their hearts. 

The Feast of Lights 

What is the meaning of Hanukah. do you ask? 

It is the feast of Dedication and of Light. 
Dedication, because it commemorates the victory 
of the Hasmoneans over the Syrians, and a re- 
dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem (165 b.c.) 
by Judah Maccabee, that brave warrior and loyal 
Jew; a feast of Light because of a tradition 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



347 



surrounding the conquering hero, although, like 
Christmas and the Brumalia of the Romans, and 
the Yule-tide feast of the Norse people, it had 
its origin in Nature as a feast of the winter 
solstice; as it were, a feast of the birth of light. 

The elements of Nature, histery, and tradition, 
like strands of brilliant colors, are woven into a 
design of surpassing beauty, and we have Hanu- 
kah, the Festival of Lights, different from the 
other days, as the events which it commemorates 
happened later than those recorded in the Bible. 
They are told in the Apocrypha in the first and 
second books of the Maccabees. 

The little child knows nothing of the origin, 
the history, or the literature connected with this 
holiday; but the story, the lights, the songs and 
the games, these he finds a never-ending source 
of joy. 

While the young, eager faces are upturned to 
hers. Mother tells the story very simply, how the 
Syrians (Greeks) through their cruel king. Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes, tried to force their idol wor- 
ship upon the Jews. But the people of Israel, 
faithful to God. held true to the religion of their 
fathers. She tells them of the good old man, 
Mattathias, who, with his five ibrave sons, raised 
a small army and went out to battle against the 
enemy ; and that when his strength left him, he 
bade his sons fight on and conquer. '"As for 
Judah Maccabee, he hath been mighty and strong 
even from his youth up; let him be j'our captain 
and fight the battle of the people," he said. 

They put themselves in God's care, inscribing 
upon their banner, "Who, O Lord, is like unto 
Thee among the mighty?" and Judah led them 
and gave them courage to strike for their religion 
and their land. After three years of war he led 
them into their beloved city and their Temple 
at Jerusalem. 

"Oh, they must have been happy," said one 
of the children. "What did they do then?" asked 
our little one. 

"Of course," continues the mother, "they wished 
to enter the Temple and worship, to thank God 
for His help and protection, but to their sorrow 
the holy place was deserted and the altar pro- 
faned. Why. they found the gates burnt up and 
shrubs growing in the courts as in a forest. 
How sad the people were ! 'They rent their 
clothes and wept aloud.' 

"But Judah gave, them hope and courage. 
While some of the men at his command were 
building a new altar others were intent upon 
cleansing the sanctuary. At last all was purified. 
The grateful people were eager to re-dedicate 
God's house. But where was the oil for the 
sacred lamp? 
K..\.— 24 



"Someone has said that after long searching 
a little boy found a tiny cruse of oil and witli 
great joy gave it to the hero, to Judah, to the 
tall, strong, fine, brave, loving Judah." 

"I wish I was that little boy." 

"You may be, dear. When you are older you 
will understand. 

"When the oil was poured into the lamp, it 
was feared that there was not enough for one 
day's use, but wonder of wonders ! the light con- 
tinued to burn for eight days. These were the 
days of re-dedication, and so in memory of them 
and of God's wondrous power to help those who 
trust in Him, we burn the Hamtkah lights in our 
home for eight successive nights. Do you re- 
member, children, one candle the first night, two 
the second night, until, on the eighth evening, 
eight lovely tapers are burning? 

" 'Kindle the taper like the steadfast star 

Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth. 
And add each night a luster, till afar 

An eight-fold splendor shine above the hearth.' " 

"Don't forget the Shammus, Mother." 

"What is the Shammus?" asks the littlest boy. 

"Mother will tell you, dear. The Shammus is 
the taper which kindles all the others. It is the 
'Servant of the Lights.' We say it is Israel carry- 
ing God's word to all the people in the world." 

"I like the Shammus, Mother." 

"I am happy to know that. Remember the 
little boy who found the cruse of oil. 

"Children, are you sure that you know the old, 
old Hattukah song?" 

They begin to sing: 

"Rock of Ages, let our song 
Praise Thy saving power," etc. 

Then the older children talk about the Hanukah 
play to be given at the synagogue, and of the 
beautiful pageant of lights that will be shown, 
where "Light," a lovely girl, will represent the 
light of day, of the stars, of love, of truth and 
righteousness, the light of knowledge, of the 
home, of charity, patriotism, law, and lastly, 
Israel, or the light of faith. 

And besides, their kind mother is preparing 
a splendid entertainment for them, a real Hanu- 
kah party, to which they may invite their friends. 
She will teach them some of the old games like 
trcndclc, that funny little square top with a 
letter on each side. 

Does our little one understand all that he sees 
and hears ? We know that he does not ; but we 
conclude that the joy, the mystery, and the poetry 
of the events of his religious year creep into 
tlie young heart and mind, and there slowly but 



348 THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 

surely form an armor of pride in race, a true in the little one the impressions begun in the 

Jewish consciousness. home ? The mother will yield her treasure to 

Soon the parents will place their little boy in the school, hoping that the foundation for the 

the Religious School, and the kindergartner may love of Judaism has been well laid, and that her 

attempt to share that sweet fellowship which has boy may grow "from strength to strength" under 

so closely linked mother and child. Will hers tlie guidance of those dedicated to the sacred 

be a sympathetic understanding? Will she deepen task. 



The reason a teacher who understands little children occa- 
sionally suggests a use of crayon and blackboard or paper is 
not alone to vary monotony and thus reawaken interest, but 
to afford fingers the opportunity of which lips often are 
incapable. For self-expression is such a necessary part of 
a child's development, and the vocabulary is so limited and 
words so difficult for shy lips to form, that the problem is 
frequently solved by handwork. The blue blur is the flower 
which makes the child glad, the straight mark the stick which 
David used to protect his sheep, the tiny dots the crumbs 
with which the child fed the birds, the yellow crosses God's 
stars that keep watch when a child sleeps, the green marks 
God's carpet for the earth, on which his beasts feed. 

"Find all the pictures of kind people," says the teacher, 
and the children show what impression of kindness they 
have received by touching the Good Shepherd, the good 
Samaritan, and possibly the mother in the Sistine Madonna. 

"Touch pictures of creatures and things the Heavenly 
Father takes care of," she suggests again, and the children 
pick out animal and bird and flower pictures, and even 
discover these things as details of Bible story pictures. 

"I wonder who can find me a picture about the verse, 
'Let us love one another,' " she asks, and the pictures illus- 
trating helpful love are chosen. 

The crirx of the whole matter is this — to develop, not 
inform: to draw out, not pour in: and thus give to the child 
his opportunity to grow naturally. 

— Frances W. Danielson. 






FIFTH YEAR 






PLAYS AND GAMES FOR THE FIFTH YEAR 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



The plays of a four-year-old child begin to be 
recognized as leading toward games with certain 
rules. He is still so immature that he can not 
understand any but the very simplest checks to 
his free play. 

Sense-Plays 

Hide the Ball. As a development of the earlier 
hiding games, let a child cover his eyes while 
someone places a brightly colored ball in some 
spot where it is inconspicuous, but not entirely 
out of sight. Increase the difficulty of the game 
by hiding smaller objects or those of a more 
neutral color in more obscure places. 

Pictures. Letting a child tell all that he sees 
in a picture is good training in observation. 

Beads. Boxes of wooden beads, called Hail- 
mann beads, of the six prismatic colors and in 
three forms — ball, cube, and cylinder — can be 
purchased at any kindergarten supply-store. 
These can be used for the early color and form 
discrimination. After the child has sorted them 
and built objects with the different colors and 
shapes, they may be strung upon a shoelace. 

The stringing of beads is good practice for 
the development of the hand. After the first 
delight in making a chain for the neck, the beads 
lend themselves to combinations which may in- 
crease in difficulty. ( i ) The first stringing will 
probably be without discrimination of either form 
or color. (2) Later the same forms might be 
strung together, as all balls, all cubes, all cylin- 
ders. (3) All of a certain color might be strung. 
(At first, in all probability, red and orange will 
be confused, and blue and purple, but color dis- 
crimination grows with age.) (4) All balls of 
one color, then cubes, then cylinders. Repeat 
with other colors. (5) One ball, one cube, one 
cylinder, of one color. Repeat with other colors. 
(6) Alternating colors all of one form, as one 
red ball, one blue ball. (7) Two of same form, 
alternating colors, as two blue balls, two yellow 



balls. (8) Three of same form, two colors. (9) 
Two of each of three different colors, as two red 
balls, two yellow, two blue. (10) String balls 
in prismatic order. (11) String one ball, one cube, 
one cylinder of red, and so on, in prismatic 
order. (12) Three of one color and two of an- 
other. Children may vary the work of different 
chains hy choosing different combinations of 
color, using different number combinations, and 
stringing the forms in different order. 

Difference of Sound. Have several resonant 
substances within reach, such as wood, tin, glass. 
Strike one of these while a child has his eyes 
closed. Let him guess which object was struck. 
Increase the number of substances to be dis- 
tinguished. 

Matching. Partly fill boxes of the same shape, 
such as small baking-powder cans, with stones, 
shells, beans, canary seeds, etc. Have at least 
two of each kind. Let the child shake them and 
put in pairs those with similar sound. Let him 
test by opening the boxes. Dr. Montessori sug- 
gests this type of educative play. 

Chin Chopper. Have pieces of apple, pear, 
and peach or orange, grapefruit, and lemon. Let 
the child close his eyes, then chant: 

"Chin chopper, chin chopper, chin chopper chin, 
Open your mouth and I'll drop in." 

As the words are repeated, the child who stands 
with closed eyes opens bis mouth and tastes what 
is placed there, then tries to guess what it is. 

Movement-Plays 

During the fifth year the child makes for him- 
self more difficult tests with regard to his con- 
trol over balance and various ways of moving. 
He hops on one foot, or walks along a crack 
in the pavement, or jumps down steps. He skips 
at first with one foot and later with two. 



349 



350 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Always encourage a rhythmic repetition of 
the exercise. 

Tap toes standing; sitting. 

Tap heels standing; sitting. 

Tap toes together. 

Tap heels together. 

Fiody up and down on tiptoes. 

Walk on line. 

Run, on tiptoe. 

Skip on one foot. 

Hop on two feet, like birds. 

Jump down step, land on toes. 

Walk on tiptoe, like a fairy. 

Body down; up, jumping on toes. 

Body bend sideways at waist,, like seesaw. 

Knees up when .walking, like high-stepping 
horses. 

Arms outstretched, fly like birds. 

Arms up and down, t)ack and front, twirl. 

Hands clap loud ; soft. 

Body with arms up, sway like trees in wind. 

Ball Plays 

In the plays with the ball this year a child 
tries to toss and bounce so that he may catch it. 
He likes to have an adult play with him because 
their aim is accurate and he has a good chance 
of success. If several children are playing .to- 
gether, they enjoy having the adult toss or 
bounce the ball so that any child may catch it 
who can. 

A child of this age likes to roll a ball back 
and forth with a playmate. If there are several 
children they like to keep two or more balls roll- 
ing at the same time. 

Dramatic Plays 

The child of four still draws the most of his 
material for dramatic interpretation from the 
home, but he adds to this the familiar street 
occupations seen from his window or doorstep 
and also the activity which made a vivid im- 
pression when he went on a trip to the zoo or 
the beach. From this he will arrange a short plot 
and act it out, supplying the details with words. 
"I'm making a house. I can make a house. I'm 
a carpenter. Here's the door and here's the win- 
dow." Then probably the part played by the 
four-year-old will change suddenly and he will 
say: "This is my house. Come to see me." So 
he goes through the day, taking first one charac- 
ter and then another, but always playing the 
leading part. 

Help the child to weave more and more of the 
ideas together like incidents in a story. On an 
imaginary visit to the park, a child could walk 
around the room or garden, step upon the car 



(chair or stool), pay his fare, wait for Fifty- 
ninth Street, jump off the car, walk to the park, 
feed the squirrels, throw bread to the fish, jump 
the rope, run lightly on the grass, watch the 
birds, and take the trip home again. 

The following topics are suggested as pos- 
sible subjects for connected dramatic play: 

A trip to the seashore. 

A walk through the woods. 

Frogs and fishes in the pond. 

Birds nesting and rearing brood. 

The crawling caterpillar going to sleep and 
evolving into the fluttering moth. 

Playing in the snow. 

A visit to a mechanical toyshop and imitation of 
the various toys. 

Santa Claus' ride and leaving of gifts. 

A trip to the zoo. 

The circus. 

Different trades (as shoemaker, blacksmith, car- 
penter). 

House-cleaning. 

Trees in a storm. 

May party. 

Picnic. 

Plays that are "originated" by all children are 
horse, house, train, boat, bird, carpenter, post- 
man, policeman, blacksmith, fireman. The child 
of four will wish to be engine, engineer, pas- 
senger, and whistle, all himself. 

The game of "The Sparrows" is much enjoyed 
by city children. After a shower they will often 
stand at the window and watch the delight of the 
sparrows as they splash in the cool water. A sug- 
gestion or question at such a time will lead to 
spontaneous dramatization. 

"See the little sparrows come 
Out from under cover 
To the water in the street, 
Gayly hopping over; 

"Now they hop and now they fly. 
Huddling in together. 
Chasing, chafiSng, chirping gay. 
They mind not any weather. 



"Now just see — away they fly 
Chirping all together. 
Now just see — away they fly 
Chirping all together." 

Actions should accompany the words of the 
song and be as good imitations of the sparrows 
as the children are able to make. 

Simple rhymes can be interpreted dramatically 
in the fifth year. 

Jack' be Ni)iible. — Any small object may be 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



351 



Hilda Rusick, 



THE SPARROWS 



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placed on the floor for a candlestick (a tray with 
spool and lead pencil makes a fairly good one), 
and the child jumps over it as the words are 
repeated. Always let the children choose what 
they wish for stage properties. Adults are usu- 
ally too realistic. 

Jack and Jill. — Two children, one carrying a 
pail, take hold of hands and pretend to walk 
uphill. At the proper time Jack falls down and 
places his hand on his "crown," and then Jill 
tumbles headlong, too. 

Little Miss Mnffct. — One child sits in a chair, 
pretending to eat from a bowl. Another child 
creeps up behind her like a spider and "sits down 
beside" the chair while Miss Muffet drops her 
bowl in her fright and runs away. 

Other rhymes much enjoyed at this age are 
"Jack Horner," "Tommy Tucker," and "A Little 
Boy went into a Barn." 

Finger-Plays 

A BEDTIME STORY 

"This little boy is going to bed; 

(First finger of right hand in f'alm nf left) 
Down on the pillow he lays his head ; 

(Thumb of left hand is pillow) 
Wraps himself in the covers tight — 

(Fingers of left hand closed) 
This is the way he sleeps all night. 
Morning comes, he opens his eyes ; 
Back with a toss the cover flies ; 

(Fingers of left hand open) 
Up he jumps, is dressed and away, 

(Right index finger up and hopping aivay) 
Ready for frolic and play all day." 



THE SOLDIERS 

"Brave little soldiers, march for me. 
Swift little soldiers, run for me. 
Stout little soldiers, jump for me." 

THE FINGERS 

"Ten little men all in a room ; 
Ten little men to market go. 
Thumbkins go to buy some meat; 
Pointers go to buy some wheat; 

"Tall men go to carry back 
The great big bundles in a sack; 
Ring men go to buy some silk; 
Babies go to buy some milk." 

The play can be repeated, using the first finger 
of the left hand for "This little girl." 

Social Plays 

Yankee Doodle. — To this tune children sing: 

"Yankee Doodle is in town, 

Tra, la, la, la, la, la. 
"First it's up and then it's down, 

Tra, la, la, la, la, la." 

At the first word one child makes some mo- 
tion with hands or feet, such as waving hands 
or stamping feet, and the other children imitate. 

To the Wall. — Two or more children stand in 
a straight row opposite a wall. The first child 
goes to the wall and back, hopping, shaking his 
head, or making some similar motion. The other 
children imitate him. The second child then has 
a turn to show how to go, etc. 



352 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



77)1? Ride. — One child chooses another for a horse; he then asks a httle playmate to ride with him. 



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Come and take a ride with me Far a - way, far a - way. We will man - y plac -88 see, 



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In our ride to - day. 



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la la la, Tra la la la la la la, 



Whoa, 



whoa, back whoa. 



Looby Loo (simplified). — Form in a circle, but omit the circle dance at the end of each stanza; four- 
year-old children can not control themselves enough to hold hands while moving swiftly. Sing: 

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I will put my one hand 



in, I will put my one hand out. 



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give my one hand a shake, shake, shake. And turn my one hand 



bout. 






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Here we clap loo - by loo. 



Here we clap 



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Here we clap loo - by loo, All in a mer - ry play. 

I will put my other hand in, etc. 

Then "two hands," "one foot," "other foot,"' "two feet," "one head," "whole self." End each stanza 
with "Here we clap [shake or skip], looby, loo," etc. 

Tlic IJ'liccl. — All the children join hands and circle around, singing: 

—I U 



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Turn - ing, turn - ing, turn - ing, turn - ing. This is the way the wheel goes round. 

This game can be developed further in several ways: by choosing one child to stand in center for 
hub ; by reversing the motion of the circle, saying, "Whoa ! back !" by dividing into two and, later, 
into four wheels, each with its hub ; by forming concentric rings. 

The Carpenter. — Almost any activity with which the children are familiar will fit into the follow- 
ing rhythm : 



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FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



3S3 



"The carpenter is sawing, sawing, sawing. 
The carpenter is sawing, sawing boards to-day. 

The carpenter is hammering, etc. 

The carpenter is planing, etc." 

End with, 

". . . making a house to-day." 



All the children while singing imitate the action 
indicated. 

Spring Game. — Any gardening activity which 
the children suggest, such as planting, weeding, 
digging, may be dramatized and acted out to the 
following rhythm : 



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Rak - ing, rak - ing, rak - ing, rak - ing, rak - ing 



our gar - den 



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Dancing Song* — Little children should make up their own steps to the melody, either prancing on 
tiptoe or sliding or whirling. Perhaps some of the older children will suggest clapping to the first, 
second, fourth, and fifth bars and whirling in the third and sixth. 

Albta Rossitbr. 

Waltz time. 



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* Alys Bentley, "The Song Primer." The A. S. Barnes Company. 



Let him be a lover of wind and sun 

And of faUing rain; and the friend of trees; 

With a singing heart for the pride of noon. 
And a tender heart for what twihght sees. 

—Ethel Clifford: "The Child: 



SELF-MAKING * 



BY 



SUSAN E. BLOW 



"To give a child a conception, instead of inducing him to find it, is a zvicl^ed act." — Pestalozzi. 



"Let it lie," the vigorous youngster exclaims to 
his father, who is about to roll a piece of wood 
out of the boy's way; "let it lie; I can get over 
it." With difficulty, indeed, the boy gets over 
it the first time, but he has accomplished the 
feat by his own strength. Strength and courage 
have grown in him. He returns, gets over the 
obstacle a second time, and soon he learns to 
clear it easily. If activity brought joy to the 
child, work now gives delight to the boy. Hence, 
the daring and venturesome feats of boyhood, 
the exploration of caves and ravines, the climb- 
ing of trees and mountains, the searching of the 
heights and depths, the roaming through fields 
and forests. 

The most difficult thing seems easy, the most 
daring thing seems without danger to him, for his 
promptings come from his innermost heart and 
will. 

I well know how hard it is to resist the fear 
which deters us from giving children occasion 
to cope with difficulties, conquer obstacles, con- 
front reasonable perils. Yet I also know that 
if you wish to develop Harold's strength and 
manliness you must be ready to let him do and 
dare. Now is it less true that if, as he grows 
older, you wish to develop his intellect you must 
avoid making the path of knowledge too smooth, 
broad, and easy, and if you wish to develop his 
moral energy you must permit him to grapple 
with moral problems. 

I should not express myself so strongly on this 
point were I not sure that hundreds of children 
are ruined because enough is not expected of 
them. The keener your realization of this peril, 
the more earnestly will you incite your infant 
Hercules to strangle while still in his cradle the 
twin serpents of sloth and selfishness. In your 
efforts to incite and discipline his energies you 
mu.st, however, be careful to keep a just balance 
between his strength and the obstacles you ask 
him to overcome. Will may be paralyzed as 
well as dissipated, and through the failures born 
of attempts to grapple with overwhelming diffi- 
culties the child may be made moody and coward- 
ly. Moreover, his affections are repelled from 

* From "Letters to Mothers on the Philosophy of Froehel,' 
D. Appleton & Company, New York. 



the mother or teacher who asks of him what even 
with his best effort he can not do, while conversely 
the impetuous currents of his love flow freely 
toward all those who procure for him that ela- 
tion of spirit which is the fine flower of success- 
ful achievement. Finally, it is from many small 
successes that he wins courage and modesty. 
Becoming accustomed to strife and victory, he 
learns just what he may venture to attempt, and 
in the end grows capable of that "reasoned 
rashness" which all great emergencies demand 
and all great successes imply. 

By many persons Froebel is supposed to be the 
avowed champion of two very popular, very 
plausible, but very dangerous educational heresies, 
against which his whole system is a protest. One 
of these heresies has been called sugar-plum 
education, the other has been fitly baptized flower- 
pot education. Sugar-plum education in its moral 
aspect means coaxing, cajolery, and bribery; in 
its intellectual aspects it is the parent of that 
specious and misleading maxim that the chief 
aim of the educator is to interest the child. Like 
the theory which wrecks happiness by making 
it the aim of life, the effort to win interest re- 
sults in methods which kill interest. The end of 
life is not happiness, but goodness; the aim of 
education is not to interest the child, but to incite 
and guide his self-activity. Seeking goodness we 
win happiness; inciting self-activity we quicken 
interest. Please say to Helen that unless she 
wishes her kindergarten to be a wretched parody 
of Froebel's ideal she will say to herself, "I must 
get and hold their attention." The kindergart- 
ner who lashes herself into a dramatic frenzy 
when playing the games, and talks herself hoarse 
in vain attempts to interest her children in their 
gifts, too often remains serenely complacent in 
face of their phlegmatic indifiference to her well- 
meant endeavors. Has she not done everything 
to interest them? They must, she thinks, be 
peculiarly unresponsive children ; or perhaps they 
have been spoiled at home ! If she would pro- 
pose to herself the objective test, and frankly 
admit that unless she can hold attention she is 
a failure, she would hit upon devices appealing 

by Susan E. Blow. Used by permission of the publishers. 



354 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



355 



more to the self-activity of the pupils. Striving 
for attention, she would win interest. For true 
interest can neither be seduced nor compelled; 
it must be incited. 

These hints will help you to understand sugar- 
plum education. Now for the flower-pot. Flower- 
pot education means the efforts to make the child 
wise and good through the influence of an arti- 
ficially perfect environment. You will take your 
tender plant out of the common ground and away 
from the common air and keep it safe by setting 
it in a sunny window of your own room. The 
struggle for life may mean something for other 
plants, but you will improve on the divine method 
in rearing your choice rose. Two false assump- 



tions are latent in your procedure: first, the as- 
sumption that character may be formed without 
effort ; and second, the assumption that evil is 
only outside your child, and not at all in him. 

Both flower-pot and sugar-plum education are 
attacks upon freedom. The former holds that 
the child may be molded by environment, the 
latter that his blind impulses may be played upon 
by the educator. Froebel holds that he is a free 
being, and therefore must be a self-making being. 
Hence, v^hile sugar-plum education appeals to 
the activity of the educator, and flower-pot edu- 
cation to the activity of environment, Froebel 
appeals first, last, and always to the self-activity 
of the child. 



CONSTRUCTIVE PLAY* 



GRACE L. BROWN 



I. The First Handicraft 

There are many signs that your four-year-old 
is leaving his babyhood behind, and some are 
hard for you to accept, but one which appeals 
to both your interest and pride is his growing 
mastery over materials and tools. From being a 
scribbler he is becoming a maker of pictures, 
ideas coming thick and fast when he once gets 
started. Cutting just for the fun of cutting, when 
anything within reach, from the newspaper to 
his hair, may fall a victim to scissors, gives place 
to efforts to make things — a wagon or boat, a 
doll's dress or bed cover. 

His chief use of material up to this time has 
been experimenting — playing with it — learning 
what he could do with it. Now he begins to put 
that knowledge to use and his crude, often gro- 
tesque efforts should be encouraged, not laughed 
at. This is the beginning of creative handwork, 
and as such should be respected and helped on 
in every way possible. 

How to Help 

Mother, father, and older sister and brother can 
all help: their part is to supply material, give 
a suggestion here and a little help there, and, 
above all, the sympathetic encouragement which 
all children need in their effort to think and do 
for themselves. Children a little older often 
know better how to help than grown-ups, for 



they see more quickly the point of difficulty and 
know how to suggest a remedy. 

One thing in particular is fatal at this period 
in the development of new interest. In your 
eagerness to help, do not take the work out of 
the child's hands, saying. "I'll do it for you!" 
for in your desire to save him from failure — 
to have a perfect product — you are denying him 
the opportunity to test and develop his own 
power of thought and skill, the only way to true 
learning. Encourage the little worker to believe 
he can do what he attempts, and nine times out 
of ten he will measure up to that belief. 

Another word of warning: his idea of finished 
work and yours will differ widely, for he will 
be perfectly satisfied at first with a slight re- 
semblance to the real thing. Do not try to im- 
pose your standards ; remember he is only four, 
and just beginning. 

Materials 

Many of the most satisfactory materials are 
odds and ends found around the house, such as — 



wrappmg-paper 
newspapers 
paper bags 
string 

cardboard boxes 
paper fasteners 
paste 



berry and grape baskets 

cloth 

clothespins 

buttons 

spools 

milk-bottle tops 



* This article is not only useful for its practical suggestions, but it is interesting as being the first published descrip- 
tion of the methods that are in daily use at the kindergarten of the Horace Mann School at Teachers College, the school 
which is having a more potent influence on elementary education than any other at the present time. Miss Brown is the 
associate of Patty Smith Hill in the direction of this kindergarten, and prepared this paper especially for this {(Ianuai.. 



356 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



In addition to these, the outdoors makes a 
unique contribution of its own, varying with the 
season and locality — 



sand 
shells 



pebbles 
snow 



leaves 
seeds 



straw 
flowers 



Every yard where there are little children 
should have a sand-pile or sand-box if possiljle, 
and an old packing-case makes a wonderful play- 
house because so many things can be done with it. 

Clay should be included in every list of 
materials. If there is a pottery anywhere near, 
your source of supply is at hand. Keep the clay 
in good condition, by packing together after 
using, wrapping well in a heavy, wet cloth and 
putting away in a small crock or covered earthen 
dish. A piece of white oilcloth is an essential 
to protect the table, and children should learn 
to wipe it off with a damp cloth after using. 

The wardrobe of every girl and boy should 
include work apron or overalls of strong material, 
to relieve both mother and child of anxiety and 
irritation over soiled clothes. 

A box or chest for materials and tools is a 
real need, and the realization that there is a right 
place for everything can not begin too soon. 

Tools 

Every child is entitled to own a few good tools. 
Do not waste your money by buying toy tool- 
boxes or cheap tools — get one at a time, if the 
cost seems excessive, but select the best. How 
can little unskilled hands accomplish anything 
with tools which would be useless even in the 
hands of a grown-up? , 

The tool-box of your four-year-old should 
contain — 

medium-size scissors — semi-sharp 

No. 3 nail-hammer 

flat-head wire nails — }i to 13/ in. long. 

The best implements for the sand-pile are a 
strong kitchen spoon, small tin dishes, tin boxes, 
and a pail, while a funnel and sieve to pour the 
sand through give variety. 

What to Make 

Boys and girls enjoy making the same things 
at this a.ge. 

Boxes. — A spool or candy-box becomes a wagon 
by merely attaching a string, and later a more 
realistic one can be made by the addition of 
cardboard wheels or milk-bottle tops fastened on 
with paper fasteners. Several wagons fastened 
together make a train — the engine a box with 
cover and a spool glued on for a smokestack. 

Baskets. — Berry, grape, and small peach baskets 



become beds for the doll family when fitted with 
mattress and covers. The mattress can be made 
of a salt or flour bag stuifed with cotton or cuj;-up 
newspaper, and the covers need no hemming. 

Paper. — The fascination of just cutting paper 
still holds with the four-year-old, and while it 
seems like a destructive tendency, he is really 
learning how to handle scissors and make them 
work effectively. Supply whatever paper is most 
plentiful, and take care of the cuttings by filling 
a bag, box, or basket, possibly using them as 
suggested above. 

Strips of paper, no matter how irregular, can 
be pasted in rings and made into chains, and 
bright colors add interest and variety. 

Efforts to make furniture are helped by cut- 
ting out paper dolls to sit in the chairs or lie on 
the beds. These first articles of furniture are 
legless and satisfy the little maker for a short 
time only, then he adds funny wobbly legs, and 
so the work improves, adding one detail after 
another. Do not try to hurry this growth of 
ideas — give them time to come gradually — nat- 
urally. 

Chiy. — Clay in the hands of a four-year-old 
means at first patting and pounding, squeezing 
and rolling, and out of it all will gradually come 
things which look like little cakes or cookies, 
loaves of bread and rolls, plates to put the cakes 
on, and so the play begins. 

Play they have a bakery, or play doll's tea- 
party, making crude little cups and saucers, and 
a plate of cookies or a layer cake (one cookie 
on top of another). Small balls, though uneven 
in shape and size, can be used for marbles, or 
while moist may be strung as beads, using a darn- 
ing needle and small twine. Marbles and beads 
are much more attractive if gayly painted with 
water-colors after the clay is dry. Every child 
will discover for himself things to make, and 
imagination will make up for all imperfections 
in form. 

Cloth. — Wrapping a piece of cloth around a 
small doll and securing it with a stitch or two 
or a pin, regardless of comfort or anatomy, is 
the first effort of the doll's dressmaker. Save 
from the scrapbasket pieces of bright cloth and 
bits of ribbon and lace for this purpose, and 
encourage sewing by the gift of a work-basket 
fitted with needles, thread, thimble, and a pin- 
cushion. A very attractive basket can be made 
of a small berry basket covered with gay silk 
or cretonne. 

If there are no small members of the doll 
family, clothespins, rolls of cloth, and even corn- 
cobs make very good dolls, especially at this age, 
when arms seem to play so small a part in the 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



357 



dressing. At first, wrapping the cloth around the 
doll is quite satisfactory, then a hole may be cut 
for the head to slip through, later the arms will 
be freed in the same way, and always the sash 
plays an important part. 

Boys enjoy this work as well as girls, and in- 
stead of being told it is girls' play should be 
encouraged to try it out, for everyone should 
know how to sew. 

Mattress and covers for dolly's bed have al- 
ready been referred to; sails can be put on the 
box boats, and flags of white or colored cloth 
tacked on sticks for a parade. 

All the sewing will 'be very coarse and ir- 
regular, usually not more than a few stitches, 
and that there may be no strain, a coarse needle 
and double thread should be used. 

Nature Materials. — A sand-pile and a child need 
no introduction ; put them together with or with- 
out the proverbial shovel and pail, and play be- 
gins. The same is true of snow, and the possi- 
bilities range from digging and snowballs to the 
snow-man and snow-fort of the older boy and 
girl. 

Some Nature material, such as leaves, has only 
a temporary value, as it is perishable, but a great 
deal can be gathered in Summer to be brought 
out some wintry day in response to the oft-re- 
peated appeal, "What can I do?" Gardens supply 
a variety of seeds, the fields give their grasses 
and straw, trees their leaves and nuts, and the 
seashore a fascinating contribution of pebbles 
and shells. 

Encourage children to collect, or at least assist 
in collecting, their own material, for it will give 
them a first-hand contact with Nature, which 
will be an invaluable background for future na- 
ture study. For winter use, save such seeds as 
pumpkin, watermelon, beans, and com, drying 
them before putting away. A cupful of these 
mi.xed seeds will afford much entertainment, the 
children themselves finding many ways to play 
with them. Where a suggestion is needed, show 
how to assort in piles — black beans in one, white 
beans in another, and corn in a third, or arrange 
in rows, making different combinations of kind 
and color. Shells and pebbles may be used in 
this same way. 

The love of personal adornment is very strong 
in children, and the suggestion to make a neck- 
lace will meet with a quick response. Seeds, 
straw and grass stems, leaves and flowers, supply 
the material, together with a strong, sharp needle 
and spool of strong thread. If -the seeds are very 
dry it may be necessary to soak them in cold 
water for a while before stringing. Straw and 
large hollow grass stems may be cut in lengths 



of about one inch and used to alternate with 
seeds, shells, berries, or flowers. Many small 
shells can be made into chains, as there is almost 
always a thin spot, if not a hole, which can be 
pierced with the needle. 

What country child has not strung the flowers 
of dandelion, daisy, or clover, and been trans- 
formed into a king or queen by a garland or 
crown of leaves, like the maple or oak, pinned 
together with their own or grass stems. 

The milkweed when ripe supplies the softest 
of down to stuff a doll's pillow, and the empty 
pod, when fitted with a tiny sail of leaf or paper 
stuck on a toothpick, will sail away with quite 
the air of a real boat. 

II. Beginnings of Art 

Scribbling with pencil, crayon, or paint, and 
patting or rolling clay, is where the fine arts 
begin. These first efforts seem far removed from 
the beautiful things which delight us in art 
museums, but that is the way in which every 
artist and craftsman started. Knowing this 
should make us very patient with the slow prog- 
ress and crude work of children. 

Materials 

Colored wax crayons — 6 or 8 colors. 

Water-color paints — semi-moist. 

Camel's hair paint-brush — large. 

Paper for drawing and painting — manila or 
unprinted newspaper, size g x I2 or larger. 

Paper for cutting — light-weight wrapping or 
unprinted newspaper. 

Paste — library or homemade flour paste. (Do 
not use mucilage as it is slippery and takes too 
long to set.) 

Paste brush — ^small bristle. 

In the "scribble stage" crayon or paint is used 
just for the fun of using, movements of the 
hand are experimented with, colors are played 
with, the little user knowing and caring nothing 
about art. Some day, from a tangle of lines, a 
man or animal may emerge quite by accident, and 
then be' purposely attempted : from that time on 
the discovery that ideas can be put on paper 
in this way will carry the little artist along. The 
tendency is to draw in outline and to work out 
one detail, then another, as the ideas of form 
grow more definite. 

How to Help 

Crayon. — Encourage a great deal of drawing 
with colored crayon, because the material is easy 
to handle, and the color gives an added interest. 
Use large sheets of paper and if possible pin 
with thumbtacks to a board which can stand 



358 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



against the wall. This encourages large, free 
drawing and painting, which is better for both 
the child and the art than small, cramped work. 

At first the work will be just trying out the 
material, probably scribbling; encourage this, but 
at the same time watch for good bright color or 
some resemblance to an object, and call attention 
to it. Gradually picture-making will begin, and 
during this stage of funny men and headless ani- 
mals be sure to make a child conscious of his 
successes rather than his failures. Such ques- 
tions as "Where is your man going?"' or "Who 
lives in your house?" will often lead to the addi- 
tion of new details to the picture. 

Small bright spots of color, if repeated across 
the paper, are not only fun to make, but are the 
beginnings of real decoration, and are especially 
interesting if the shapes of the spots are varied. 

The best help is encouragement, trying to see 
the beginnings of ideas in the making, and draw- 
ing quickly and crudely with the child, making 
it a game. 

Paint. — There is much more interest in paint 
as a bright surface-covering than as a means 
of expressing ideas, — making pictures, as with 
crayon. This is due to the nature of the mate- 
rial, as paint and water naturally spread them- 
selves out over whatever they touch, and control 
is more difficult to acquire. 

When painting begins, put a thick newspaper 
or oilcloth on the table and have a small dish 
of water and plenty of small sheets of paper. 
Show how to wet the brush, roll it on the paint 
and draw it across the paper instead of scribbling 
with it. Encourage experimenting with various 
colors and different movements of the brush, 
always trying for strong, clear color. Some pic- 
ture-making may be attempted, but more of this 
will be done wtth crayon. Clay beads, marbles, 
and dishes may be painted, also paper baskets, 
paper or cloth flags, and anything where color 
will give an added interest. 

Paper,.— AW uses of paper begin with the snip- 
ping stage already described. As skill in handling 
material develops, cuttings take more varied 
shape. From these pick out a few which suggest 
some form — as a boat, tree, flower, man, or ani- 
mal, and arranging them on a sheet of darker 
paper show how to paste them on, using little 
paste. This selecting of pieces with chance re- 
semblances can be carried on as a game and will 
soon lead to direct cutting of houses, boats, ani- 
mals, etc., which will of course be very crude, 
but quite satisfactory to the young producer at 
this stage in his development. 

Encourage the selection and mounting of the 
best forms cut and you will find a gradual group- 



ing of figures in relation to each other which 
later leads on into story illustration in silhouette 
or color. 

III. Constructive Plays the Fifth Year 

Out of the past year's experimentation with 
materials and tools you will find growing a desire 
and effort to make things with which to play. 
Sometimes these things are suggested by the 
material itself or the work of another child, some- 
times by a play or game, and again it may be 
the season which whispers the magic word, kite, 
parasol, or sled. 

An interesting thing to watch is the source of 
suggestion and how it works out, — the 'material 
used, the originality put into the making, and 
how one thing made and played with leads nat- 
urally to another, as a doll's table calls for a chair 
and dishes to make the play complete. 

What to Expect 

Children at this age are too unskilled to do 
real toy-making, but the result of their crude 
efforts now will soon begin to show and surprise 
you. Theirs is the joy of making, and the hours 
spent in devising means to reach the desired end 
are offset by pride in the crude product because 
it is all their own handiwork, li the kite is too 
heavy to fly, or the doll's house too small for the 
doll, it does not matter seriously to the small 
workman, for his mind naturally reaches ahead 
to the possibility of success the next time. He 
may discard without a qualm what is unsatisfac- 
tory to him, and begin all over, with an uncon- 
scious faith in the creative power which is the 
birthright of each of us. 

With some children of five years and over 
there is still a fascination in just using — experi- 
menting with — materials and tools, especially if 
they have had little opportunity or variety before, 
but this phase lasts but a short time, while with 
the three- and four-year-old it is the characteristic 
use. 

This period begins to show the distinctive in- 
terests of boys and girls, but they should not be 
emphasized by those guiding them. Both need 
to learn the use of all materials, the boy to sew 
and make or dress dolls if he wants to, the girl 
to use hammer and saw. 

How to Help 

One of the best ways to stimulate constructive 
work and play is to bring together two or more 
children, for work always develops more rapidly 
when there is an opportunity for interchange of 
ideas. There will be little inclination to co- 
operate in working out a common problem if the 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



359 



children are about the same age (5 to 6), for the 
interest of each is centered in what he wants to 
do, but a free helpful give-and-take of criticism 
and suggestion will result. 

Your largest contributions will be giving 
needed suggestions and sympathetic encourage- 
ment, helping to find materials and tools, and 
being tolerant of the noise and disorder which 
is often a necessary part of their work. 

Children soon learn to plan their own work, 
what they want to do and how to do it, but they 
do need your help in learning how to test the 
product. The sure, simple test of a cart, whether 
crude or finished, is the test of use — does it 
work? Does the marble roll? Is the bed the 
right size for the doll? Gradually apply this 
standard as a suggestion and it will soon be 
adopted. This comes after your child has passed 
the stage of experimentation when criticism is 
only a hindrance. 

Do not use specified, detailed directions for 
handwork at this age. While this method does 
produce a finished product, it tends to block the 
original creative side of work and make the 
worker dependent on outside ideas and help. If 
you want to show your boy how to make a kite, 
or your girl a pattern for a doll's dress, let them 
watch you start or make one, then do it them- 
selves. Adults do too much thinking for chil- 
dren, who are naturally courageous in attempting 
new things. Even failure is a wise teacher. 

Materials 

The materials for this year's work will be the 
same as last, those found in and around every 
home supplying a large part, with the help of 
nature, or a nearby store or carpenter shop. Paper 
of all kinds, cloth, wood, and clay are the favor- 
ites. 

There will be a constantly increasing demand 
for wood, especially with boys, and it is well 
when the home supply gives out to take the child 
with you to the store to get discarded boxes, or 
to the carpenter's to ask for odd pieces of soft 
wood. The first requisite with wood is that it 
shall be soft so the nails can be driven in easily, 
and the nails should be of the flat-head wire type, 
varying from }i to 2 inches in length. 

Cloth, old stockings, and bits of ribbon and lace 
will be wanted for doll dressing, and a piece-box 
which receives contributions from time to time 
often proves a fertile source of suggestion. 

With a growing skill in using wood will come 
the desire to paint or stain the article. Make 
this possible if you can by covering the young 
painter with a work apron, putting plenty of 
newspaper under the work and having it done 



where spatters can do no harm. Use any stain 
or bright oil paint you may have or can get in 
small quantity, being sure the paint is thin enough 
to dry quickly. 

A great variety of materials for children to use 
can be purchased, but none of it has a greater 
value than the simple home supply. An occa- 
sional gift of some bright-colored paper, a new 
box of colored crayons, a jar of paste, a ball of 
string all his own, or a pincushion, needles, and 
thread for the doll's dressmaker will mean more 
to your child than an elaborate outfit if he has 
been encouraged to use materials easily procured. 

As already suggested, every child should have 
a place to keep his possessions and early establish 
the habit of putting them away and getting them 
out himself. 

Tools 

The suggestion already made that no childhood 
is complete without the ownership of a few simple 
good tools will bear repetition. If scissors and 
hammer are already a part of your child's play 
equipment, he will probably not need anything 
more than a pencil, until the end of the fifth 
year, when a short crosscut saw, a ruler, and 
sandpaper can be added, if wood is being used. 

What to Make 

Wholesome, purposeful play is naturally the 
chief business in life of a five-year-old and a 
most abundant source of suggestion in his con- 
structive work. The two work wonderfully to- 
gether, some play-interest suggesting what he 
shall make and something he makes suggesting 
more play. 

Dolls have many needs, such as furniture, 
dishes, and clothes, and the furniture when made 
leads to varied plays of home life which may call 
for more furniture, more dolls, or a doll-house. 

Doll Furniture 

The first furniture is usually made of heavy 
brown wrapping paper or paper boxes. 

For convenience in handling the paper, cut it 
in squares and oblongs of from 6 to 12 inches, 
then by folding here, cutting there, and pasting 
where needed, any article of furniture can be 
made. Turn up each end of a narrow oblong 
piece, paste on legs, and a bed is ready for white 
paper sheets and pillow. A small square or oblong, 
with strips for legs, makes a table which may be 
set with white paper plates, and cups may be 
made by crushing a small circle of paper over 
a finger-tip. 

Many of these forms may be very crude, but 
when arranged in a moderately large box for a 



360 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



house, will give great satisfaction for the time 
being. 

Small boxes can be made into various articles 
of furniture, such as a bed, cradle, bureau, piano, 
and table. Several little safety-match boxes, fitted 
and pasted into a large box, make a bureau with 
real drawers, and knobs may be added by making 
a small hole in the end of each and pushing 
through from the back the metal or wooden 
collar buttons which come from a laundry. Shoe 
buttons may also 'be used for knobs or handles, 
fastening them in place with a bit of cardboard 
or stiff paper through the eye. 'Paper fasteners 
and glue hold cardboard more securely than 
paste. 

Boys are especially interested in making wooden 
furniture. Any soft wood from V$ inch to }i 
inch thick can be used for this, provided some 
boards are wide enough for a table-top or bed. 
The dimensions of all the furniture will depend 
on the size of the dolls who are to use it. 

For the first making of wooden furniture the 
simplest construction is to use blocks of wood 
two or three inches square, instead of attempting 
legs. The chair, if made of a 2-inch cube for 
the seat, will need a thin strip about 2x4 inches 
for the back, and a table to go with it can be 
made with a top about 5 inches 'square on one 
of the cubes, and on the bottom a base about 3 
inches square to make it more steady and to 
raise it so the chair will go imder. 

A simple, strong chair construction for either 
doll or child calls for one piece for the seat, one 
for the back which goes clear to the floor, and 
two side-pieces in place of legs. The table top 
can be put on two pieces like those used for the 
chair, only higher, or on four sturdy legs. 

The bed needs one board for the bottom, one 
each for iiead and foot, and two narrow side 
strips may be added to give gre?ater rigidity. 

When this furniture has been put together with 
wire nails it may be sandpapered wherever rough. 
In sandpapering, show your child how to fold a 
small piece over a small iblock of wood, which 
makes it easier to handle and gives better results. 

Doll Dishes 

Clay dishe's for the dolls while easily made are 
easily broken, but that is no source of discour- 
agement to a child; it rather gives the opportunity 
to make another and better set. 

Be sure the clay is soft so it will model readily 
without cracking, and as the pieces are finished, 
put them in the sun or any warm place to harden. 
When dry, these can 'be made very attractive by 
decorating with water-color paints, either a solid 
color, a border of gay dots or a few flowers scat- 



tered all over. A thin coat of white shellac put 
on with a brush over a dry paint will give a 
harder surface and bring out the color. 

Dolls 

Making dolls begins much earlier with some 
children than with others, a clothespin, a bottle, 
a bag, a roll of cloth and even newspaper being 
used to supplement the doll family. Often an 
ingenious, imaginative child will find an interest- 
ing, original way of meeting this play need. 

Clothespin dolls are of necessity the same 
height, but the dressing can be varied by using 
either cloth or tissue paper and making a face 
with pen and ink. 

A bottle, with a head of cotton and cloth tied 
over the top and then dressed, has the advantage 
of standing up, and for this reason lends itself 
well to many plays with blocks, the character 
changing with a change of clothes. 

A paper-bag doll is made with a small and a 
larger bag filled with cut up newspaper, the top 
of each drawn up. slipped together and tied at 
the neck. A crayoned face and hair, and a paper 
dress make it complete. 

The making of a doll out of a roll of cloth is 
of ancient origin. This begins with a single roll 
for body and head, a few stitches holding it to- 
gether, and later small rolls may be added for 
arms and legs, the doll becoming a reality with 
the addition of face and dress. 

Doll Clothes 

The real doll's dressmaker soon passes the point 
where she is satisfied with a wrapping for a dress, 
and needs your help in learning how to make a 
pattern. Lay the doll, whether large or small, 
on a piece of wrapping paper, with arms out- 
stretched; draw around from the neck to the 
knees, cut out, leaving a margin, and lay the pat- 
tern on the doll to see if it fits. If the pattern 
is not rig-ht, try again. This gives what is known 
as the "kimono pattern" and is used in the same 
way, by laying the shoulder line of the pattern 
on a fold of the cloth. (See page 239.) 

Clothes for any of the doll family can be made 
from patterns fashioned in this way. 

The sewing of the two seams should be done 
in the way which is easiest for the child ; it will 
be coarse and uneven and hems will not be turned, 
but there may be ribbons and pockets, aprons and 
caps, to offset that lack. 

Outdoor Play 

Outdoor play holds suggestions of its own for 
constructive work, the most universal interest 
centering in the wagon and the play-house. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



361 



I'Vagojts 

The mere thought of real wagon-making ap- 
peals to all boys and to -most girls, and with a 
little help is quite within the range of their 
ability. 

A two-wheel cart for a doll, or for use in the 
garden, can -be made of a small wooden box, a 
square axle an inch longer than the width of the 
box, two wooden wheels of suitable size and a 
long piece for a handle. Nail the axle securely 
near one end of the box, then put the handle in 
place on the bottom, and after boring j4-inch 
holes in the center of each wheel fasten them to 
the axle with a strong nail or screw put through 
an iron or tin washer to hold the wheel on. 

When making a four-wheel wagon, put an axle 
close to each end, fix the wheels as described 
above, and bore two holes in the front end for a 
rope handle. 

Playhouse. — City or coimtry, north or south, 
much outdoor play centers around some form of 
shelter. Stones, sticks, or leaves may outline the 
boundary of a house or store ; a blanket thrown 
over two chairs or over a hanging branch gives 
the desired enclosure, but a large packing-box is 
the best of all. 

The box house, being more permanent, not only 
lends itself to varied plays, but changes its fur- 
nishings as any stage is reset : a box counter 
makes a store; a window curtain and chair, a 
house; while just playing horse transforms the 
same into a barn. If it is possible to have a play- 
house of this kind out of doors, include it in your 
child's play equipment. 

Dramatic Play is another source of suggestion 
for constructive work. The five-year-old begins 
this in a very simple way; a piece of cloth for 
a long skirt transforms a small girl into a mother; 
a badge or official-looking cap, and the boy is the 
train conductor, while a few pieces of homemade 
paper money and a small assortment of clay cakes 
or other things bring forth the announcement, "I 
am Mr. Blank, the baker." When invited, enter 
into the plays as father, passenger, or customer 
and encourage these early dramatic efforts. 

What the Season May Suggest 

The time of year always plays its part in tKe 
work of children, for who would think of making 
a kite when the snow is falling or a sled when the 
spring winds blow ? 

Spring. — The winds of Spring suggest kite and 
pinwheel ; the rains leave small pools and full 
streams calling for boats, while marbles are on 
the counters of every toy store. 

The first kite can be made of an inflated paper 



bag with a string attached, which will sail behind 
a running child, "but a real kite requires greater 
accuracy than is possible at this age. 

Gay little tops which really spin need only lyi 
or 2-inch wooden button molds, and through the 
holes push burnt matches or round sticks about 2 
inches long. Color 'these with bright paint or 
crayon. 

A realistic tug or steamboat is made of a small 
oblong piece of wood, with spools glued on for 
smokestacks and possibly a little block for a pilot 
house. 

Clay marbles should be well made by this time 
and before painting can be put in the oven to 
harden. After painting with gay water colors, 
apply a thin coat of white shellac to give a fin- 
ished surface. Marbles call for a marble bag, and 
the sewing is put to a very practical test, for if 
there are large gaps between the stitches, th^ 
marbles will find them. 

The old custom of leaving a May basket at a 
friend's door when the first flowers come is worth 
reviving. Paper baskets large enough to hold 
flowers can be made of drawing paper daintily 
decorated or of colored paper. Experiment with 
wrapping paper, folding and cutting in different 
shapes — square, oblong, or round — and use the 
best one as a model. 

Summer. — A little girl's summer needs are also 
her doll's needs — thin dress, hat, and parasol ; and 
boys are always seeking a shelter as a center for 
their plays. Vacation trips yield new nature ma- 
terials to the bright eyes which have been opened 
to their play possibilities as suggested in the 
fourth year. 

Effective doll's hats are made by crushing over 
the doll's head a square of wrapping paper or 
cloth of suitable size, and sewing the folds in 
place around the crown. When sewed, it should 
fit easily over the head and the rim can be cut 
any desired width or turned up wherever desired. 
A paper hat can be trimmed to suit the maker 
with strips of colored tissue paper for ribbons, 
crushed bits of the paper for flowers, and small 
chicken-feathers for plumes. Bits of real ribbon 
and feathers can be used on the cloth hat. 

A doll's parasol consists of a circle of stiff 
cardboard the right size for the doll, covered with 
a bright cambric, lawn, cretonne, or wall-paper, 
and for a handle a small round stick six or eight 
inches long. Paste the cardboard circle on the 
cloth or paper, then cut the cloth an inch larger 
than the cardboard, and slash this border to make 
a fringe all around the edge. Fasten the top on 
the stick with a tack, and the parasol is ready 
for Miss Dolly. A child's parasol, twelve to four- 
teen inches in diameter, can be made in the same 



362 



THK HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



way. A cheap lead pencil may furnish the stick 
for the parasol. 

Autumn. — The coming of cold weather brings 
new demands for doll's clothing — a warm dress or 
petticoat, a cap, and cape or coat. 

The cap is fitted on the doll's head, drawing 
the folds to the back of the neck, where they are 
pinned in place, then sewed. Strings and perhaps 
a bit of trimming give the finishing toucb. 

For the coat use the same pattern as for the 
dress, only make it larger and open down the 
front. Sewing on buttons is usually a new ac- 
complishment at this age and slits serve as button- 
holes. 

Winter.- — With the advent of the shut-in days 
of Winter, toys and blocks are used more, and floor 
plays often grow quite elaborate, especially if 
there is room to leave the work and carry" it on 
from day to day. 

The supply of blocks is usually limited and 
needs to be supplemented by small boxes to com- 
plete the village street, the farm buildings or the 
railroad center, with which the child plays out 
the life of the community in which he lives. A 
box becomes a house when doors and windows 
are cut and a paper roof and chimney added. 
Paper dolls can wait at the railroad station for 
the incoming train, paper animals to inhabit the 
barnyard can be drawn, cut out and mounted on 
a base of stiff paper, and wagons and trains can 
be made of small boxes, as suggested in the fourth 
year. 

With the coming of snow a doll's sled will be 
needed, and again there is use for a small wooden 
box with a string attached, to which two strips 
can be added for runners, if desired. 

Gold, silver, and red paper are the best materials 
for Christmas-tree decorations. With the gold 
and silver paper make dainty chains of J^ x 4- 
inch strips, a few small stars of cardboard, and 
silver icicles of l-inch strips rolled like the old- 
fashioned lamp-lighter. Through a point of each 
star and the top of each icicle put a thread loop 
to hang on the tips of the branches. Red cornu- 
copias, baskets, or boxes for popcorn or candy, 
add the touch of holiday color. 

IV. Beginnings of Fine Art 

Almost all of a child's spontaneous drawings 
and paintings up to six or seven years are pic- 
torial — pictures of things — real objects in daily 
life such as men, women, animals, houses, wagons, 
and boats, drawn in outline and sometimes filled 
in. 

During the fifth and sixth years you can expect 
more detail and association of ideas, pictures 
which tell stories of things thev have seen or 



are doing, as a house with people in or around 
it, a horse, wagon and driver, or an automobile 
full of people. The house may be transparent, 
showing the furniture in each room, but that is 
because the young artist is putting down what he 
really knows about a house and its contents, not 
what he sees — he is drawing from memory rather 
than from the object itself. This very realistic 
phase is only temporary, but a necessary step in 
development. 

Another characteristic of this period is the ra- 
pidity with which children put their ideas on 
paper. The crayon or brush fairly flies and the 
picture is declared finished; there is little or no 
lingering to perfect details, but a quick moving 
on to another idea waiting for expression. 

How to Help 

With repetition comes an increased skill in 
handling both materials and ideas. When a child 
holds on to one idea and repeats it, watch for 
and encourage the addition of new details, also 
improvement in form and color. Slight changes 
mean growth, even though the form is still far 
from our ideal. 

Even young children are not copyists by nature, 
but producers, seeking every opportunity to ex- 
press their own ideas in their own way. The 
great variety in life is due to the fact that the 
creative instinct within us gives an individual 
touch to everything we do, if we are not forced 
into the mold of conventionality by others. 
There are many ways of drawing or modeling 
a man, a horse, or a flower, and color combina- 
tions are innumerable ; so if your boy departs from 
your idea of what should be done, do not hold 
him to the cold facts of color and form as you 
see them, but enjoy his way with him. 

The test to apply to a child's picture is how 
clearly it tells the story in the mind of the young 
artist. If you feel he is not doing his best, say, 
"I know you can tell that story better," or "Try 
to make a train that is really going." This helps 
to center the attention on characteristic points. 
Smoke rolling out over a train gives a feeling 
of movement and curling straight up from the 
engine indicates it is standing still. 

An effective way to show a child how his work 
is improving is to put away an occasional drawing 
or painting to have for comparison with later 
work ; this helps him not only to see how much 
better his work of to-day is than that of last 
month or last year, but encourages further im- 
provement by awakening a feeling of pride in his 
achievement and your recognition of it. Real 
growth in anything can onlv come through desire 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



363 



and effort from within, never tlirough compulsion 
from without. 

Love of color is strong in every one of us, but 
all too often children's sense of color values is 
untrained because they have little or no opportu- 
nity to choose and use the colors they like. A 
box of paint or crayon gives the desired variety 
from which to choose, and a consultation with a 
child as to which hair ribbon or tie shall be pur- 
chased or worn gives an every-day training in 
color selection. 

In working with both crayon and paint, large 
sheets of paper encourage larger, freer work, 
and a water-color brush twice the size of the one 
which usually comes with a paint-box gives far 
more satisfactory results. 

What to Do 

Clay. — If you are watching for the beginnings 
of art in children's work with clay, you will begin 
to realize how often they try to make the human 
figure and animals — fruits, vegetables, and flowers 
— even vases and tiles. 

When figures are the center of interest you can 
help by speaking of some part of the work which 
is better than the rest, as "That man's head is 
very good," or calling attention to whatever sug- 
gests action, as "Your elephant looks as if he is 
walking." Show how a slight bending of head, 
arm or foot gives life to the figure, even when 
the work is very crude. 

Small fruits or vegetables colored with water- 
color paint can have a clay basket or bowl to hold 
them, and flowers can be laid on flat pieces like 
a plaque, for stems are seldom strong enough to 
stand upright. 

Any flat piece (square, oblong, or round) sug- 
gests a tile or paper-weight, especially if deco- 
rated with a drawing or design sketched with a 
match or toothpick and painted. Leaves, shells, 
or large seeds pressed into the smooth, soft clay 
surface and then removed, leave their own im- 
pression, which may be very decorative if done 
with care. 

Crayon. — By this time the period of experi- 
menting with the crayon has largely passed and 
storj'-telling is in full swing, crayon stories of 
things done and seen, or of such well-loved tales 
as "The Three Bears" and "Jack and the Bean- 
stalk." The eiifort to put a record of familiar 
stories on paper not only gives material for draw- 
ing but makes more real the story itself. Some- 
times the story-pictures will run on from one sheet 
of paper to another, like scenes in a play or a 
moving picture ; this shows a growing continuity 
of thought. 

K.N,— 25 



Line drawing still predominates, with an occa- 
sional filling in with color, for crayon and pencil 
lend themselves more naturally to making a line 
than a surface covering. 

The elements of decoration have probably ap- 
peared before this in rows of round or irregular 
spots ; these may now be varied by making such 
additions as stems to make rows of flowers, or the 
alternation of color or form. Use these borders 
on paper boxes, baskets, or plates, across the end 
of a cloth cover for -the doll's bureau, or around 
the edge of doll's parasol or hat. 

Paint. — While crayon is largely the picture- 
making medium at this age, paint will begin to 
come into its own. The painted figures will lack 
much of the detail of those done in crayon, but 
will gradually show more action and life, every 
hit of which should receive favorable comment 
from you. 

Color is such an outstanding interest in using 
paint that color washes are always a delight, 
sometimes one or two colors, sometimes many on 
one paper blending into new and fascinating com- 
binations. The colors may be washed over a 
large sheet of paper and then cut into circles for 
balloons or balls and flowers or leaves, if their 
coloring is suggested, using cardboard patterns; 
or the paper may be cut into circles, squares, or 
any desired shape, then painted and mounted on 
a fresh sheet. 

Paint as a medium for decoration is full of 
suggestion, the bru.sh itself making several dif- 
ferent forms, depending on how it is held. These 
brush spots may be combined and varied in color 
just for the joy of doing, or used as a border or 
in all-over pattern on articles made of paper or 
clay. 

Paper. — Even in the fifth year paper-cutting 
as a means of picture-making gives way to crayon 
and paint, but it is well worth while to do this 
work with a child in order to get him started, for 
it gives one more way of expressing ideas, and 
the results are interesting. 

Follow the way of beginning suggested in the 
fourth year, then try story illustration, using 
white paper for cutting the figures, and mount 
on a colored sheet — green, blue, or brown. At 
first the forms may be cut in parts and put to- 
gether, as a man's body, head, arms, and legs, or 
a flower with separate stem and leaves, but with 
a little help from you they will soon begin to 
appear in one piece. 

Some children visualize form more quickly than 
others and find great joy in this new art. 

Small figures, flowers, or conventional forms, 
cut several together, or from a pattern, make very 
decorative borders, especially if done in color. 



THINGS TO MAKE OUT OF NEWSPAPERS 



MRS, LOUISE H. PECK 



For our fun we need only flour or prepared paste 
and the newspapers which have been folded care- 
fully away, waiting for us all this long time. 

Chains. — Cut the white margins from several 
newspapers, very straight and all the same width. 
Then cut these in strips five inches long, all ex- 
actly the same length and with ends cut straight. 
Take one strip and paste ends evenly together to 
form a ring, holding for a moment until the paste 
catches. Slip another strip through this ring, 
paste the ends as before, and now we have two 
rings, one linked within the other. Go on in this 
way until a long chain has been made. Some- 
times brown wrapping-paper strips may be alter- 
nated with the white newspaper strips. Later, 
make chains that will teach numbers : one brown, 
one white; two brown, one white; three brown, 
two white ; using all kinds of combinations. 

Don't cut" the strips for the children. The 
preparation of their own material is a wonderful 
part of the lesson. 

When several long chains have been made, they 
may be swung to music or singing, or used as a 
decoration for the playroom. 

Pussy Chains. — These are also made from 
evenly cut margins, and in as long strips as pos- 
sible. Lay the ends of two strips across each 
other at right angles, and paste together. Fold 
the under strip over across the pasted end of the 
upper strip, but do not paste. Keep on folding 
one strip over the other at exact right angles 
until they are used up. Paste on other strips to 
make the chain longer, and paste ends together 
to finish. This makes a delightfully "stretch-y" 
chain. 

These chains are pretty made of two colors, 
and may be used as decorations for a Christmas 
tree or to hang on the wall. 

Paper Sticks. — Now let us make some paper 
sticks for laying patterns or pictures on the table 
as we would with toothpicks. Cut a strip from 
the white margin or from the printed paper half 
an inch wide and twelve inches long. Dip one 
corner of one end in water and begin to roll 
tightly at a slant. Keep on rolling tightly, hold- 
ing the tip with the right hand while the left 
holds and rolls the strip. When completely rolled 
into a paper stick of five or six inches, hold firmly 
and fold over the end. No paste is needed. This 



makes the old-fashioned lamp-lighter or ''spill.'' 
Illustrated newspaper sheets make pretty varie- 
gated sticks. 

When fifty or more of these sticks have been 
made, use them for laying pictures of houses, 
trees, fences, and other objects. Sometimes we 
bend the sticks for roofs, curves, and corners. If 
the child wishes to keep a picture, have him make 
a penciled drawing of it in a scrap-book prepared 
of smooth wrapping-paper. All kinds of geo- 
metric figures may be made with paper sticks — 
oblongs, squares, circles, triangles, and so on. 

The bent sticks are kept in one box, the straight 
ones in another. In still another box we have all 
kinds of queerly-bent paper sticks. These are 
our jackstraws. and we make our wand for lifting 
the sticks from a longer strip of rolled paper, bent 
at the small end to make the hook. 

Paper Pipes. — These are made of whole sheets 
of newspaper rolled into long loose cylinders, 
measuring three or four inches across the end, 
the ends being folded or bent tightly in toward 
the center to keep the pipe from unrolling. To 
make water-pipes, slip the end of one into the 
end of another, and lay as many as are desired, 
following the mopboards or anywhere else about 
the room. 

These rolled sheets may be stood on end for a 
stockade fence, or placed across each other to 
build a log-house. 

Stepping Stones. — Half sheets of paper placed 
on the floor a long step apart make good stepping- 
stones over a running brook, the floor being the 
"water." Care must be taken to step straight and 
squarely on the paper to avoid slipping. The 
game is a fine one for developing quick balance. 
Sometimes we play "Eliza Crossing the Ice," with 
the dolls held tightly in our arms. 

Castles. — Roll doubled sheets of newspaper into 
cvlinders, big short ones, and big high ones. Look 
at some good castle picture and see how to pin 
the cylinder towers together, with long balconies. 
Good drawbridges and portcullis may be made by 
skillful fingers, also a moat from brown paper. 
The growing castle in the corner of the room 
has been known to make a whole family study 
pictured castles as never before, and when every- 
one helps in the building, there is more than a 
castle being built. 



364 



THE BEGINNINGS OF ART FOR LITTLE CHILDREN* 



WALTER SARGENT 



The human race has built up various means of 
■self-expression, Each of these modes of expres- 
sion furnishes an outlet for thoughts and gives 
them objective form. They also influence the 
kind of thinking and feeling and, to a degree, 
shape and determine ideas. 

The Arts deal with aspects of experience and 
reality which language tends to neglect. They 
give added mental and emotional experiences, 
different in kind from those which come through 
other channels. By them this many-sided world 
gains new meanings. 

In our companionship with little children our 
problem is to recognize the most important e.xpe- 
riences which art study can give to children, and 
to keep these hoped-for results in mind, so that 
they will dominate the numerous details of daily 
method. 

A comparison of drawing with language helps 
us to realize how drawing cultivates a new way 
of looking at things. Language uses words which 
are more or less arbitrary symbols, fitted to dis- 
cuss relations, causes, and conclusions. The vo- 
cabulary is furnished by society. Drawing uses 
lines and color; terms which are suggested by 
first-hand experience with reality. Language re- 
lates things, drawing individualizes them. It thus 
furnishes another way of handling impressions. 

Children's Interest in Drawing 

There is much discussion as to whether chil- 
dren shall be taught to draw in mass or in outline. 
What is their interest in drawing? It consists 
partly in the fact that drawing is a way of han- 
dling and defining things. They are not so much 
interested in representing actual appearances as 
in presenting ideas. Outline is a convenient way 
of cutting objects out of the undifferentiated flow 
of impression and setting them forth clearly. The 
effect of mass presents really an adult point of 
view. It involves a thing in its setting or rela- 
tions. In actual practice, children settle the ques- 
tion, for unless they are under the closest super- 
vision, they draw in outline. Even in silhouette 
it is the edge which appears to interest them. 

Children's drawings usually present a story. 
Attempts to teacii them an exactness which checks 
this narrative interest are harmful. On the other 



hand, there are times when their symbols fail to 
satisfy, and when they need to be guided into 
new perceptions of form. Then instruction does 
not check the impulses of the children, but rather 
reenforces them. The best instruction as to how 
to draw is generally given by example. 

Design in the Kindergarten 

The importance of landscape drawing in the 
kindergarten is frequently over-emphasized. His- 
torically, the representation of landscape for its 
own sake is a late development. Until recently, 
landscape was used in. art as the setting for a 
story. Probably that is its best use for young 
children. A reasonable standard of attainment 
in drawing in the kindergarten should include the 
establisliment of a habit of using drawing for 
narrative purposes, and some definite teaching of 
a graphic vocabulary. 

Another important result of art-study is that 
which design furnishes in giving acquaintance 
with rhythmic patterns. Designs are not merely 
decorative arrangements. They are also schemes 
for seeing and interpreting. A feeling for fine 
spacing is seldom developed in young children. 
They need suggestive examples in order to give 
them good types of arrangement. Highly con- 
ventionalized forms, such as Coptic or Aztec 
designs, are full of suggestions for children. Con- 
siderable material will be found in the reports 
of the United States Bureau of Ethnology. 

Much design has grown out of playful experi- 
mentation with appearances and experiences. 
Design should include a decorative interpretation 
of stories, games, etc., in much the same spirit 
that games and folk-songs often give a playful 
or musical interpretation of occupations. De- 
sign should be so taught that what children pro- 
duce should be in part an evolution from their 
own experiences and not simply an adoption of 
abstract patterns. 

Children's Love for Pictures 

In addition to drawing and design, a third art 
influence is that of pictures. A picture has two 
elements: its story and its form. Young chil- 
dren are interested mainly in the story. They 
fall in love with some pictures. They talk to 



* Fundamental to any endeavor to help little children to express themselves through pictures is such a study as this, 
by Professor Sargent, of the kind of drawings and pictures that interest children. Read it carefully, pencil in hand. 



r,66 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



them and live in their scenes. Their imagination 
is stimulated and they identify themselves with 
the characters in the pictures. These occasional 
affections for certain pictures furnish good points 
of departure for picture-study. 

One secret of developing appreciation of art is 
to start with what one likes, and then become ac- 
quainted with the best of that type. There is need 
of further experiment to discover wh'at good pic- 
tures children most generally like. The interest 
of children in narrative should 'be taken into ac- 
count. Their often-criticised liking for the comic 
supplement of the Sunday paper depends partly 
on this interest. These pictures generally pre- 
sent progressive stages in a story. Illustrators of 
children's books should utilize this device. 

Conscious interest in fine art comes* much later 
than the kindergarten. It is generally awakened 
in us not directly by works of art, but by the help 
of someone who enjoys art and in whose discrimi- 
nation we have confidence and whose enjoyment, 
which we realize is genuine but beyond ours, we 
would like to share. 

Imitation and Initiative 

Any teaching of art must take account of the 
initiative instincts of children. Some instructors 
fear that they may check originality. Conse- 
quently they hesitate to draw for children or to 
express their own choices in matters of design. 



Children's imitative tendencies are not simple 
affairs. Many factors are involved, but we can 
usually tell by the results w'hether the imitation 
is a stimulus or hindrance to originality. Imi- 
tation and originality are closely related. In fact, 
each i^s necessary to the other. For example, the 
dramatic impulse is based on mimicry, but is a 
potent factor in self-discovery and development. 
There is a sense of power in expanding one's 
personality to include that of another. Our ideals 
are usually suggested by persons and then imi- 
tated. Thus imitation is closely related to the 
development of character. 

In matters dealing, as esthetics do, with the 
emotions, imitation has special significance. Pro- 
fessor Josiah Royce says, "With the aid of cer- 
tain deep and instinctive tendencies to assume 
imitatively the bodily attitudes or the other ex- 
pressive functions of our fellows, functions which 
may be in part internal as well as external, we 
are able to share the emotions of others even 
when these emotions relate to matters that lie far 
beyond our own previous experience." 

Children imitate and therefore absorb not only 
the technical habits but also the esthetic attitude 
of the instructor. Methods of instruction are 
valuable, but esthetic appreciation is contagious. 
If we have a genuine love for art, it tends to 
awaken a similar emotion in the children with 
whom we come in contact. 



HOW THE CHILD MAY EXPRESS HIMSELF 
THROUGH ART* 



PREPARED BY 

THE COMMITTEE ON CURRICULUM OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
KINDERGARTEN UNION 



General Aims 

1. To gain better control of the medium. 

2. To see objects more clearly and to express 
thought more definitely. 

3. To use color and arrangement more con- 
sciously. 

Specific Aims 

1. To satisfy the desire for expression and to 
develop the creative imagination. 

2. To develop a feeling for color and arrange- 
ment. 

3. To clarify thought. 

4. To enable the child to see beauty in Nature 

* This valuable statement ties together what is said on th 
Brown, and Professor .Sargent, and helps the mother define 
she shall expect to attain. 



and in works of art from a new point of view, 
because he has tried to express himself through 
art mediums. 

Method in Relation to General Aims 

To satisfy the desire for expression and to 
develop the creative imagination: — Opportunity 
should be given for free expression with paper 
and scissors, crayons, paints, and clay. The first 
expression of children is from the image and not 
from the object. As John Dewey says : 

"Even in drawing objects the child will draw 
from his image, not from the object itself. As soon 

is important subject by Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Newell, Miss 
for herself her aims, just how she is going to work, and what 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



367 



as the child has acquired the habit of vivifying and 
liberating his image through expression, then a re- 
turn may take place to the original form. In one 
sense there is no technique up to this time, but there 
is the psychological factor corresponding to technique, 
the motor expression, its coordination with, control 
by, and stimulation of the visible image. This be- 
comes through training what is ordinarily called 
technique. The first consideration is the doing, the 
use; after use comes method, the how of doing. 
Now, method must exist not for its own sake but 
for better self-expression, fuller and more interest- 
ing doing. Hence these two points; technique must 
grow out of free imaginative expression, and it must 
grow up within and come into such imaginative ex- 
pression." 

To develop a feeling for color and arrange- 
ment. — I. Color: A child's love of color should 
be satisfied by giving 'him colored materials with 
which to express himself — crayons, water-colors, 
and colored papers. It is better for kindergarten 
children to use colored crayons rather th.in pen- 
cils, because they satisfy the sense of color and 
at the same time give broader, softer lines than 
the pencil. The first expression of the children 
should be free, even if the color combinations are 
crude. More estlietic shades and tints should not 
be given the child until he has satisfied to some 
extent his love for the more brilliant colors. He 
often makes barbaric combinations which are as 
unconsciously beautiful as primitive art. While 
these results may be at first accidental, through 
emphasis and selection by the teacher, they may 
form the basis for more conscious control on the 
part of the child. 

The teacher may influence the results, as the 
child becomes more familiar with the medium, by 
supplying backgrounds of a neutral or harmoni- 
ous shade upon which the work is applied, and 
by occasionally limiting the choice of colors. 

2. Arrangement: In tlie free work of children 
we find many examples of unconscious arrange- 
ment : for instance, a child makes a succession of 
stars and moons across the top of the paper in- 
stead of drawing a literal representation of a 
night scene. This interest in arrangement may be 
developed and made more intelligent by supply- 
ing motives for design in the decoration of the 
kindergarten room, and by decorating baskets, 
plates, paper-doll dresses, etc., which furnish 
shapes so suggestive for design. 

The use of materials which naturally lend them- 
selves to the repetition of a unit or to orderly 
arrangement rather than to illustration, such as 
peg boards, bead stringing, stringing nature mate- 
rials, all develop interest in design. 

To clarify thought. — In general, all expression 
objectifies ideas, and so tends to clarify thought. 
However, if the teacher does not regard the re- 



sults that the child attains .as worth while, and 
if she fails to provide opportunity for motivation 
of work, the quality of the results will not im- 
prove and will most likely deteriorate. Too often 
teachers impose devices upon the child in the 
form of results which may have been suggested 
by an exhibit of kindergarten work, or by a visit 
to another kindergarten. These "results" have 
no value in themselves, but only as they represent 
a working out of a problem which is vital to the 
group concerned. ^Motive in work makes expres- 
sion grow in intelligence. Problems of "how" or 
"what" constantly arise in the child's experimen- 
tation, and should be made more clear by the 
teacher. The more instinctive activity character- 
istic of the first use of the material becomes trans- 
formed into a process that demands clear think- 
ing. "Imitation of the teacher's copy" used too 
frequently in art-work with kindergarten and 
elementary-school children encourages the child 
mechanically to repeat the result which the 
teacher has thought out, and not to think his way 
through the process, which is one of the chief 
values in any kind of expression. 

To develop appreciation. — Activity is the child's 
key to knowledge. He likes flowers because he 
can pick them, but when he has represented their 
brig'ht colors, the activity involved in the process 
of making a picture gives him a new attitude 
toward the object. The interest in the art-result, 
because it is the child's own project, carries over 
to an interest in the object and so brings about 
a more intellectual attitude as a basis for the next 
effort. This objectifying of experience makes 
other people's pictures more interesting to the, 
child. This is one approach to picture apprecia- 
tion. 

Method in Relation to Specific Aims 

To gain better control of the medium. — The 
first interest in any material is in manipulation ; 
results are secondary. As bas been suggested, 
scribbling may be developed into firm lines and 
smooth rubbing on of color ; daubing and scrub- 
bing may be changed into the application of 
washes. When children have passed out of the 
experimental stage and have the ability to secure 
better results in technique, they may criticise 
their own results and those of the class. One 
child said frankly tfliat the water in a picture 
"looked like mussed-up hair," realizing that the 
lines might have been kept parallel. 

When children draw, they seem instinctively 
to use line instead of mass drawing, but as rub- 
bing on of color strengthens technique, mass 
drawing may be suggested in connection with 
line drawing. For instance, boats are drawn in 



368 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



outline, but the water is rubbed in. Soldiers or 
sailors may be drawn unsubstantial and stick- 
like, but uniforms are sug'gested, and again there 
is need for broad, smooth, strokes. A book filled 
with illustrations may 'have a cover decorated 
with units in massed color. 

When there is group instruction in art-work, 
the children should be classified by their ability 
in using a particular medium, and nof by age 
or the length of time they have been in the kin- 
dergarten. In this way the children w'ho are still 
in the e.xperimental stage will work very freely 
with the medium, while those who are tending 
to repeat themselves or who desire a better form 
of expression. may have the benefit of instruction. 

To see objects more clearly and to express 
thought more definitely. — Many children of kin- 
dergarten age are too immature to draw from 
olijects and should first live through the more 
imaginative stage of art expression. There are 
some children of kindergarten age, however, who 
can draw with a considerable degree of accuracy 
and a grasp of details. They are able to study 
a flag and to reproduce it in the right colors and 
with the right relationship of the field to. the 
stafif and of the stripes to the field. Children in 
this stage of development can draw clocks with 
some sense of proportion, and they show their 
maturity by making some kind of symbol around 
the face of the clock instead of merely making 
marks as do the young children. This kind of 
drawing would seem to have some relation to the 
ability to write. It is also the beginning of me- 
chanical drawing and the drawing of still life. 
It should never take the place of the more im- 
aginative drawing, but there are subjects in the 
kindergarten curriculum which lend themselves 
to this form of expression, such as the drawing 
01 trains, houses, etc. In the Spring, branches of 
pussywillows, wildflowers, and hyacinths that the 
chHdren have planted may be drawn with some 
regard to correct form and color. When chil- 
dren, however, look indifferently at the spray to 
lie drawn and then make a flower growing out of 
the ground, and even use green and red indiscrim- 
inately for flower or stem, they are not in the 



stage to draw from an object. A group of chil- 
dren whose teacher had given them a spray cf 
bitter-sweet to study and represent merely took 
the berries as a suggestion and worked out a 
variety of arrangement in spots and lines which 
were very decorative, but which merely suggested 
the berry and had no resemblance to the actual 
growth. 

To use color and arrangement more consciously. 
— As was suggested in a previous section, provid- 
ing a motive tends to make the work more 
thoughtful. For instance, the younger children 
scatter all kinds of objects over a page with no 
thought of selection or arrangement. To make a 
book with a picture on each page brings about 
orderliness of thought and arrangement. When 
the subject-matter of the curriculum has made 
thought more clear, the children's illustrations 
will reflect this quality, and the teacher's em- 
phasis will be along the lines of the relationship 
among objects in a picture. 

When the problem is a decorative rather than 
an illustrative one, the objects to be decorated 
will control the use of appropriate color and de- 
sign ; for example, orange and brown at Hallow- 
e'en and red and green at Christmas-time applied 
to plates, baskets, and other objects associated 
with the festivals. The doll-house presents ex- 
cellent problems in combinations of harmonious 
color and design applied to wall paper, rugs, etc. 

Attainments 

1. Attitudes. Interests, Tastes. — Eagerness and 
willingness to express ideas and emotions through 
the mediums of graphic art. More intelligent 
interest in pictures. Feeling for color, form, and 
arrangement. 

2. Habits, Skill. — Orderly habits in using mate- 
rials. Ability to handle art mediums with some 
degree of skill. 

3. Knoidedge, Information. — Some idea of 
form in relation to expressing thought to others. 
Clearer idea of subject-matter in the curriculum 
through having expressed thought through art 
mediums. 



Nobofly can be a useful mother without having some sort 
of fun every day. — George Hodges, 



Pictures for the home* 



JULIA WADE ABBOTT 



What arc some of the problems of wall decora- 
tion? We have learned to hang our pictures low 
and nearer the level of the children's eyes. We 
often dull children's perceptions by having all the 
large pictures before them all the time. If the 
pictures have not been talked about or hung in 
different positions in the room, it is an interesting 
experience to take the children out of the room 
and question them to see if they have noticed the 
pictures at all. 

Do you remember Penrod's attitude toward the 
pictures in his room at school? 

"Roused from perfect apathy, the boy cast 
about the schoolroom an eye wearied to nausea 
by the perpetual vision of the neat teacher upon 
the platform, the backs of the heads of the pupils 
in front of him, and the monotonous stretches of 
blackboard, threateningly defaced by arithmetical 
formulse and other insignia of torture. Above the 
blackboard, the walls of the high room were of 
white plaster — white with the qualified whiteness 
of old snow in a soft-coal town. This dismal ex- 
panse was broken by four lithographic portraits, 
votive offerings of a thoughtful publisher. The 
portraits were of good and great men, kind men 
— men who loved children. Their faces were 
noble and benevolent. But the lithographs offered 
the only rest for the eyes of children fatigued by 
the everlasting sameness of the schoolroom. Long 
day after long day, interminable week in and in- 
terminable week out. vast month on vast month, 
the pupils sat with those four portraits beaming 
kindness down upon them. Never while the chil- 
dren of that schoolroom lived, would they be 
able to forget one detail of the four lithographs : 
the hand of Longfellow was fixed, for them, for- 
ever, in his beard. And by a simple and uncon- 
scious association of ideas, Penrod Schofield was 
accumulating an antipathy for the gentle Long- 
fellow and for James Russell Lowell and for 
Oliver Wendell Holmes and for John Greenleaf 
Whittier, which would never permit him to peruse 
a work of one of those great New Englanders 
without a feeling of personal resentment." 

We have improved somewhat since that day 
and we are all familiar with the carbon prints of 



good paintings that are found in -almost every 
house. Yet one grows a little tired of "Sir Gala- 
had," "The Children of Charles the First," "Ma- 
dame Le Brun and Her Daughter," "The Sistine 
Madonna," etc. We must remember that in de- 
veloping art-appreciation in children, the form 
presented, whether it be poem, story, song, or 
picture, must have some element that appeals to 
the immediate interests and instincts of the child. 
But in addition to this, there must be elements of 
permanent beauty that will help transform the 
naive interest of the child into real appreciation. 
Color makes its appeal to all children, and the 
fact that billboards and comic supplements use 
this appeal in such a flamboyant fashion, makes 
it all the more important that we use colored 
prints. 

What subject shall we select? It is more usual 
to find pictures of people and animals than land- 
scapes. If the element of color were not present, 
landscapes would not appeal to children, but I 
have found that broad, pure color, found in the 
landscape more often than in other pictures, 
makes a distinct appeal. I have tested the ap- 
preciation of groups of children by taking them 
to an art-store, and having placed before them, 
on a large easel, picture after picture, without 
comment. In Minneapolis, these Middle-West 
children were particularly interested in pictures 
of the ocean, a commentary on the practice of 
literally-minded people who would confine the 
curriculum to the child's immediate environment. 
One especially lovely landscape had bright blue 
sky, floating white clouds, green grass with a few 
red poppies scattered here and there, and the 
atmosphere of summer permeating it all. When 
this picture was put on the easel, one little girl 
gave a sigh of delight and threw her arms wide 
in a gesture of abandonment more significant 
than any words could have been. 

What should be the general character of the 
large, framed pictures? From the art stand- 
point the landscapes should be decorative in char- 
acter and broad and simple in effect. In pictures 
containing figures, the drawing should be good 
and the positions restful. Some pictures which 



* A Report prepared by Miss Abbott as Chairman of the Graphic Arts Committee of the International Kindergarten 
Union and presented to )>be Union. Used by permission of the President, Miss Caroline D. Aborn, and of the author. 



3/0 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



are merely illustrations and which are very good 
in a small-sized picture do not bear enlargement 
and are not decorative enough for a wall picture. 

Whether the subject is landscape or figure, the 
picture should make an appeal to the child's 
imagination. Just as all stories about children 
are not for children, so all pictures with children 
as the subject do not interest children. "The Age 
of Innocence" is charming to us as a delineation 
of childhood, but to children it is just a passive 
little girl. But Baby Stuart awakens that feeling 
for little, young tender things that many boys 
and girls of five have to a large degree, though 
they themselves have so recently ceased to be 
babies ! I saw a little colored boy run up and 
kiss the picture and say ''Dear little baby!" the 
first morning that the picture was hung low in 
the room in relation to the family idea. 

The Knaus Madonna appeals to little children 
because there are so many pretty, charming babies 
in the picture. The attitude of the mother and 
child enters into the children's appreciation of 
pictures of madonnas, and I imagine the Sistine 
Madonna seems cold and strange to them. At 
Thanksgiving time, I used to show the children 
Millet's "Sower" until one little boy, more frank 
than the rest, said, "He looks just like a burglar I" 
And then, for the first time, I saw the picture 



as the child had seen it. and the slouch hat and 
undefined dark face were for the moment more 
striking than the fine action of the figure as a 
symbol of the satisfaction of human needs. We 
must strike a happy medium 'between pictures 
that are too classic for little children and the 
very ordinary pictures that one may find in maga- 
zines and too often in children's picture-books. 

But very good pictures appear on the covers 
of some of our magazines, and we can make very 
valuable collections from many sources. We 
should remember, however, that we use pictures 
for two purposes : for the giving of information 
and for the development of appreciation, and the 
same kind of picture will not serve both purposes. 
Pictures of fruits and vegetables from a seed 
catalog might be very appropriate when the in- 
terest is in naming all the kinds of things the 
farmer has planted in his field, but when we ap- 
proach Thanksgiving and the interpretation of 
the Harvest, we should want a picture that con- 
tained the beauty of the fields in Autumn and the 
human activities of reaping the grain as Dupre 
and Breton represented them. 

The development of art appreciation in young 
children depends upon the presentation of the 
right art form in relation to an immediate, emo- 
tional experience. 



LEARNING TO USE LANGUAGE* 

ADAPTED FROM A REPORT BY 

THE COMMITTEE ON CURRICULUM OF THE 
INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION 



In language, the wealth of learning and aspira- 
tion of the race have been stored up, ready to be 
unlocked when the child has found the key of 
some actual experience which will give him the 
power to enter into his inheritance. Words are 
symbols ; that is, they suggest and represent 
meanings. John Dewey says, "Words should be 
signs of ideas, and ideas spring from experience." 

General Aims 

I. To provide a means of communicating with 
others. — The kindergarten period is the one 
during which a child should become thoroughly 
grounded in colloquial, conversational English. 
He should gain in the ability to grasp the mean- 
ings of others as interpreted in language. 



2. To aid in the clarification of ideas; to crys- 
tallise a meaning zvhich the child has discovered 
in his e.vperiencing, so that such meaning, may be 
used in thinking. — As the child realizes finer dis- 
tinctions in his experience, he seeks for a word 
that will fix his idea. If it is supplied to him 
or if he coins one for the situation, he can make 
easy reference to that situation in his later 
thoughts; the word gives him a new basis for 
discrimination. 

Specific Aims 

I. Improvement of the technique of oral c.r- 
prcssion. — Increase of vocabulary due to wider 
experiences and finer distinctions. 

Better grammatical construction, sentences 



* Select from tliis practical article at least one teaching-device to try to-day. and another for to-morrow. But do not 
rlepend on scattered devices. Read the article over and over, to remind yourself of the aims you have in mind with your 
methods.— W. B. F. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



371 



more complete and following each other in se- 
quence without loss of spontaneity in expression. 
Clearer enunciation; correct pronunciation; 
pleasing, expressive tone of voice. 

2. Organisation of thought. — In striving for 
adequate expression of his ideas, a child learns 
to emphasize the more significant phases of his 
experience, to relate these to his former experi- 
ences, and to define them in terms of former ex- 
periences. In social intercourse he interprets the 
thoughts and feelings of others in the light of his 
own, and so enlarges and modifies his own. 

3. Freedom of expression. — A child should be 
led to feel that he has something to say which 
is worth saying. A child should be led to feel 
that he has an interested listener. A child should 
be led to feel that he will be encouraged to com- 
municate his ideas. 

Method 

Conversation should not be limited to certain 
periods of the day set apart for that purpose; 
for in such a case it becomes formal and forced. 

Throughout the day the child should have 
freedom of expression. He should ask questions 
of other children as well as of his mother; he 
should ask their help in work and play ; he should 
express his opinions, and thus test his ideas by 
the knowledge of others who may sanction or dis- 
approve. It is only when a situation does not 
provoke energetic thought that a little child's talk 
becomes silly. 

Wrong Methods. — It is almost impossible to 
give model outlines for conversations because 
of their inherent nature. Conversation is a give 
and take, modified by the mental attitudes of the 
people taking part. It is easier to show what 
the so-called conversation periods should not be 
like. 

1. Question and answer method : The mother 
may start by asking, "What did we talk about 
yesterday?" If little impression was made the 
previous day, no answer may be forthcoming or 
perhaps a random guess. "It was a tall man who 
carries a flag." "Yes, a soldier." "What did we 
say a soldier did?" This method rouses a half- 
hearted interest because the child gives informa- 
tion only. 

2. Monologue method: The mother may tell 
the child all about some experience. The child is 
passive, may not be interested in the topic, and 
has no opportunity for expression. Children 
should usually gather information from some 
direct experience. 

3. Over-organized method: The mother may 
say, "Yesterday we talked about where the squir- 



rel lives; to-day we will talk about what he looks 
like." A little child is not ready for concentra- 
tion on such minute details, pigeonholed under 
headings. A child must respond to a whole situa- 
tion if his language is to flow freely and fully. 

4. Poor method of using pictures : "Here is 
a picture; what do you see in it?" is often a way 
that a conversation is started. Such a question 
is unnecessary if the picture illustrates experi- 
ences familiar to the child. The picture itself 
will suggest interesting conversation. But if the 
picture shows objects or activities entirely for- 
eign to the child, he may guess at its meaning, but 
there is little language value. The child may 
learn to speak the words which the mother uses 
in describing the picture, but as there is no con- 
tent to the words, these will drop from the 
vocabulary. 

Right Methods. — I. Recall of an experience: 
A vivid experience, such as watching the carpen- 
ter at work, playing in the wind, planting in the 
garden, is a good starting-point for a general 
conversation. "Language will become vigorous 
and effective when there has been reaction to- 
ward elemental things." The child himself must 
use correct language form. "Nothing but per- 
sistent oral repetition of the correct form will 
overcome the habit of using incorrect, ungram- 
rnatical, and inelegant expression in daily speech. 
These are matters of ear-training and motor- 
habits as well as of knowledge." 

If the child describes an experience in a desul- 
tory, disjointed way, the mother may ask a few 
suggestive questions and at the end may com- 
bine the child's ideas in a sequence of events, 
an interesting summary. 

2. Experience of the child told to others: 
\\'hen the child's contribution is of such a nature 
that it is of significance for others, the mother 
should help the child to tell the experience. The 
responsibility for interesting a group because one 
has something worth while to say is an attitude 
that should be encouraged in a social situation. 

3. A social situation which calls for organiza- 
tion of oral expression: Invitations to celebra- 
tions, letters to absent friends or other children, 
etc., are excellent opportunities for the formulation 
of ideas in written form. 

4. Good method of using pictures : A question 
which leads to picture-interpretation complies 
more with the spirit of art than one that suggests 
picture-analysis. 

The following stories were told by some five- 
year-old children as interpretations of Millet's 
"First Step": 

The father is saying to the baby, "Come over 
here," And the mother is holding the baby. "Come 



37^ 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



over here, come over here, and I will put you on 
the car." 

Once a man was in his garden picking up wheat 
and putting it all in his wagon. His mother and his 
haby came in to see how it was in the garden, and 
he put out his arms to lift up the baby, and he 
wanted to lift the baby, too, but he had too mucli 
work ; he couldn't. Then, after he was done with 
that, he planted some seeds. So many trees are 
there! All the people came from all over the coun- 
try to see how nice it was. He had fences so that 
nobody could come in to touch his stuff. He took 
his wheat to the miller, who made it into flour so 
that we'd have something to eat. 

After a few stories about a picture have been 
told by the child, the mother can draw attention 
to different parts of the picture which have been 
misinterpreted. For instance, the above stories 
show that the wheelbarrow in the "First Step" 
is an unfamiliar object. Conversation will then 
center on these unfamiliar objects in familiar 
surroundings. Sometimes it is the activity, the 
meaning of the picture, which is misinterpreted. 
In such cases the mother will question about the 
detail which gives the clue to the rightful mean- 
ing. 

This method of studying a picture develops 
imagination and gives a unity to a picture and to 
the ideas about it. When questions lead to the 
mere naming of different parts of the picture, 
observation is developed, but it is not true picture- 
study ; that is, a consideration of the idea, the 
underlying meaning as expressed through the 
relations between the various parts. 

Aids to oral language. — Language-work is 
greatly aided by drawing, handwork, dramatiza- 
tion. Any communication of ideas is really lan- 
guage, because the hand and the bodily gesture 
have a language of their own which really carries 
over into verbal language and enriches it. 

Dramatization, drawing, and language bear a 
close relation to one another. A child of kinder- 
garten age strives to fix and clarify an idea, first, 
by dramatization, then by oral language, then by 
drawing. The younger child dramatizes the dif- 
ferent parts of the experience without much 
regard to the sequence in which the events hap- 
pened. His subsequent oral expression is still dis- 



jointed, but is more related than his actions. His 
drawing illustrates isolated parts of tiie experi- 
ence. As the child grows, his ideas become better 
organized; his dramatization shows an attempt 
to relate different incidents, his oral expression 
contains incidents woven into an embryo story, 
and his drawing represents several objects in 
some relation. Dramatization is composition in 
primitive language form; drawing is composition 
in picture-writing form. Both should be used by 
the teacher in conjunction with language to aid 
in the organization of thought. 

Attainments 

No absolute standard can be set, for home 
conditions exercise great influence upon the lan- 
guage-development of children. Training should 
result in increased control, power, and desire in 
the following directions : 

1. Control over tone of voice, enunciation, pro- 
nunciation, and grammatical construction. 

2. Power to put ideas into language, either in 
asking questions or in making statements. 

3. Ability to understand simple conversation 
and to respond to directions which have been 
stated once. 

4. Desire to find proper and adequate verbal 
expression for vague ideas and to add to the 
vocabulary. 

The vocabulary should include the names of 
the most familiar objects in the school, home, 
and neighborhood ; also such qualities and activ- 
ities of these objects as are necessary for a child 
to understand in order to carry on his life and 
play-projects, or the qualities and activities con- 
cerning which he is curious. 

Habits of courteous response and intercourse 
should be developed. "Please," "Thank you," 
"Excuse me," "Yes, Mother," should come nat- 
urally at the appropriate time. Replying when 
spoken to and waiting until others have finished 
speaking should be one result of training. 

Education in language is not measured by the 
number of words which a child can pronounce, 
but by the clearness of his ideas about a number 
of selected experiences, as shown through his 
adaptable, usual vocabulary. 



Nothing can so sap the intere.st and destroy the educative 
value of play so quickly as to discover everything for the 
child. — Luther H. Gnlick. 



MOTHER, FATHER, AND CHILD— PARTNERS THREE 



MAUD BURXHAM 



Kate Douglas Wiggin says, "How inexpressibly 
tiresome is the everlasting 'Don't' in some liouse- 
holds. Don't get in the fire, don't get in the water, 
don't tease the baby, don't interrupt, don't con- 
tradict, don't fight with your brother, and don't 
worry me NOW, while in all this tirade not one 
word has been said about something to do." 

Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten, 
studied to give the children something to do. If 
a mother's and father's demands are such that 
they can not take time for study, they may at least 
share the interests and pleasures of their chil- 
dren in ways that constantly suggest themselves. 
By doing tliis they will enter into a paying part- 
nership with their boys and girls, and later on they 
will have less reason to complain that the chil- 
dren seek other homes for diversion. 

When a mother allows little daughter or son 
to use the tiny board and rolling-pin at cookie- 
making time, or permits the toy broom, dust-pan 
and brush, washtub, or little iron to serve a pur- 
pose, she is not only beginning a partnership, 
but laying a foundation for real usefulness later. 

Enjoying carefully restricted play with cup, 
pint and quart measures, or even the scales, helps 
the child to practical knowledge. There are times 
when he may even play with the fireless cooker 
and demonstrate to his satisfaction that he can 
fit the right cover in the right compartment and 
place one utensil within another. 

Fortunate the small boy or girl who is allowed 
to play "train" with chairs or use them for cages 
in the zoo; who may appropriate the waste- 
paper basket for a hen-coop and use the clothes- 
basket for a boat. 

One mother I know shows the spirit of part- 



nership as she sits in her rocker sewing. She 
calls the following, "rocker" games: 

1. The tea-bell is placed on the floor. From 
a given spot the children roll marbles to hit it. 

2. Mother is the kitty and the children are mice. 
Kitty's dish is placed back of the rocker, where 
Mother can not see it, and then from a corner 
farther back a mouse comes on tiptoe to try to 
pick up the dish without kitty's knowing it. If 
ever so little noise is heard, kitty cries, "Meow," 
and the mouse runs to the corner, to give another 
mouse a turn. 

3. The "groceryman" knocks at the door. 
Mother gives orders which are written down in 
make-believe. Then the goods are delivered. 

4. The "iceman" calls with wooden blocks. 

A father has ample opportunity to be a partner 
with his children. There may be a chance to 
share in the care of animals, and carpentry and 
garden tools offer unlimited possibilities for 
cooperation. 

A certain professor allowed his boys to assist 
in making their sand-box. Those who could not 
use tools smoothed the rough boards with sand- 
paper. These same boys helped to make a won- 
derful stationary horse out of a barrel. 

Instead of forbidding his child to touch the 
typewriter, one father taught him the alphal)et 
on it. As the boy grew up he used it for certain 
school work and letter-writing. 

Xora A. Smith suggests the keeping of a diary 
to help in cementing the family partnership. In 
this is recorded each evening the events of the 
day. the weather, and so on. 

One of the most delightful pleasures to be 
shared in the home is reading aloud. 



But oh, if the toys were not scattered about. 
And the house never echoed to racket and rout; 
If forever the rooms were all tidy and neat, 
And one need not wipe after wee muddy feet; 
If no one laughed out when the morning was red. 
And with kisses went tumbling all tired to bed; 
What a wearisome, work-a-day world, don't you see. 
For all who love wild little laddies 'twould be. 

—Kate M. Cleary. 

373 



THE HOME PLAY-YARD 



BY 



MRS. DORA LADD KEYES 



Note — The gist of this article is in the sentence: "Social training is the biggest contriljution of 
the kindergarten. The child needs to play with other children." The writer tells how she cultivated 
this social opportunity by developing the home play-yard into a "Neighborhood Fun Club." 



My husband and I feel that the eight dollars we 
invested in a fence for a play-yard for our two 
boys were well spent. The play-yard is fifteen 
feet square and contains a little cherry-tree, some 
grass, and a large space from which grass has 
long since disappeared. Here we put a big sand- 
pile which, when wet, supplies dough for all 
sorts of delectable bakery products, and when 
dry affords opportunities for constructing bridges 
and mysterious tunnels. 

The play-yard is the place for tea-parties in 
the "hungry middle of the afternoon." It has 
not only supplied the needs of our own children, 
but is quite the social center of the neighbor- 
hood — too much so, one mother sometimes thinks ! 

Songs, stories, hand-work, and nature study 
are important lines of kindergarten activity which 
a mother can pursue at home with the help of a 
few good books and her own resourcefulness. 
The child deprived of kindergarten is not so likely 
to suffer for want of these activities as for the 
lack of the social training which, to me, is the 
biggest contribution of the kindergarten. The 
child needs to play with other children. "Here," 
says Jean Paul, "the first social fetters are woven 
of flowers." And therein lies the unique value 
of the little play-yard. Children learn there to 
give and take, to adjust themselves to each other 
and to cooperate. They also develop the initiative 
that makes for leadership. 

Play in the play-yard is undirected so long as 
harmony prevails. 

The neighborhood is the next larger natural 
group after the family, and prepares the child 
for a conception of the larger school group and 
the community. In the Summer I invite the 
children of the neighborhood— about sixteen in 



all — to come to our big lawn twice a week and 
join in our "Twilight Play Circle." During the 
Winter I also invite them to come once a week 
to play indoors. We call the winter meetings our 
"Neighborhood Fun Club." I took my neighbor- 
hood as I found it, and the children vary from 
three-year-olds to two eighth-grade girls. One 
of the latter plays the piano for us and the other 
helps in numberless ways. I serve no refresh- 
ments. 

Last Winter we learned three simple folk dances 
and a number of the beautiful games that are 
so deeply rooted in the early social experiences 
of the race, such as "London Bridge," and "Here 
we go 'round the mulberry bush." 

We also played other games suitable for a large 
number of children indoors, and learned about 
thirty riddles. Children who could read prepared 
special contributions, such as child poems of 
Eugene Field and Robert Louis Stevenson. Two 
little girls sang duets for us, and one day we had 
a little guest who taught us some charming solo 
dances based on Mother Goose rhymes. 

The children's love of the dramatic was shown 
by their fondness for guessing pantomimes. A 
child usually planned a pantomime beforehand 
and then invited others to help him work it out 
for the rest to guess. Our pantomime material 
was drawn largely from Mother Goose, yEsop's 
Fables and well-known fairy-tales. 

Our "Fun Club" takes some of my precious 
spare time, as well as a considerable amount of 
energy, but I feel that it pays for myself as well 
as for the children. It makes me realize what 
Froebel's friend meant when he said, "It is like 
a fresh bath for the human soul when we dare 
to be children again with children." 



The central interest in child life is not what nature is 
doing, but what man is doing. — Patty Smith Hill. 



374 



PLAYTHINGS WHICH THE FATHER CAN MAKE 



BY 



WILLIAM A. McKEEVER, LL.D., AND JEAX LEE IIUXT 



The Stilts 

Stilts are very attractive to children if made 
to fit the age and development of the player. 
For the four-year-old begin with broomsticks. 
Pierce these with a gimlet a few inches from the 
larger end. With a piece of old garden hose 
make a loop large enough for the child's foot 
to slip in easily. Pierce the lap-ends of this loop 
and pass a long stove bolt through the rubber 
and the hole in the broomstick. 

For older children use a stouter staff and raise 
the loop higher gradually, by having a series of 
holes for adjustment. After due practice boys 
may walk on stilts four feet from the ground. 
Bring a group of these together and have a stilt 
parade. 

The Sliding-Board 

The sliding-board has proved its worth as a 
popular plaything, although some have con- 
structed it carelessly and used it unintelligently. 
For the smaller child at home, a trough of wood 
may be easily constructed as follows : 

Obtain for the bottom a smooth 14-inch board. 
10 to 14 feet in length, and use i x 2-inch stuff 
of the same length for the sides. Decide as to 
the upper end of the board in accordance with the 
direction of the grain, and so avoid splinters. 
Rub the trough down well with sandpaper and 
with a full coating of ordinary floor wax. 

Secure the upper end of the slide to the edge 
of a platform or box, allowing a slope of about 
45°. Arrange a ladder or cheap stairway for 
reaching the top of the slide, placing banisters 
and supports where needed. At the lower end 
of the trough there may be a shallow sand-pit 
or some other provision for a soft landing. 

Teach the little ones to take their turn here 
and to assist one another. 

The Climbing-Rope 

Children are not strong enough in the arms 
to climb a vertical pole or rope, but they may 
develop much vigor from ascending a rope 
stretched diagonally. Therefore secure one end 
of a j4-inch rope to a post or tree at a point 
just within reach of the child. Now draw taut 
as possible and fasten the other end similarly 
but considerably higher, say at a slope of 45°. 



Rub the rope down with wax or oil in order 
to give the hand a secure hold and to prevent 
the fibers from pricking. There is little danger 
of falling. However, the ground below may be 
padded with some soft material in order to en- 
courage the beginner or -the timid child. 

This climbing exercise is an excellent lung- 
developer. 

The Turning-Bar 

To develop the muscles of the arms and chest 
and send the red blood outward from the heart, 
turning on the bar is scarcely to be excelled. 
If started upon this exercise in mere babyhood 
a child grows especially fond of it. 

Ordinarily half-inch gas pipe makes a good 
bar for children. Obtain a four-foot piece from 
the plumber and have him attach flanges at the 
ends for nailing the bar up between the posts. It 
must be perfectly firm and must not turn in the 
hands. Hang barely within tiptoe reach of the 
child. 

A trapeze of the same material and swung at 
the same height is also good. The swinging 
motion adds to the charm. Hang also a gas-pipe 
hoop about thirty inches in diameter. This lends 
itself to several extra turns and contortions. 

The Seesaw 

Board — Straight grain lumber, 1%' x 9" x 

I2'-o". 

Two cleats ij4" x 9" bolted to the under side 
of the board to act as a socket on the hip of the 
horse. 

Horse — Height 25". Length 22j4". Spread 
of feet at ground 20". Legs built of 2" x 3" 
material. Hip of 2" x 3" material. Brace under 
hip of %" material. 

Note — All figures given are for outside meas- 
urements. Apparatus, except seesaw board and 
sliding-board, should be painted, especially those 
parts which are to be put into the ground. 

The Trapeze 

Two Uprights — 3" x 3" x 6'-io". 
Top Piece — 3" x 3" x 2'-io". 
Ends of top piece secured to uprights by being 
mortised or halved and bolted together. 

Uprights rest on bases of 2" x 3" material, 3'-7" 



375 



376 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



long, connected by a small platform in the form 
of an H. 

Bases and uprights are bolted to dogs or pieces 
of wood 2" X 4" X 5-8" set in the ground about 
3'-o"- 

Adjustable bar (round) l^s" diameter. 

Three holes bored in each upright provide for 
the adjustable bar. The first hole is 3'-o" above 
ground, the second 3'-5", the third 3'- 10". 

Swing bar (round), i}i" diameter, is 20" long. 
Should hang about 16" below top piece. 

Two holes 5^" diameter bored in the top piece 
receive a continuous rope attached to the swing 
bar by being knotted after passing through holes 
(^" diameter) in each end of the bar. 

The Swinging-Rope 

Upright — 3" x 3" x 6'-9". 
Top Piece — 3" x 3" x 2'-g". 

Upright and top piece are mortised or halved 
and bolted together. 

Bracing at top (3" x 3" x 20^" at long point 
of miter cuts) is nailed to top piece and upright 
at an angle of about 45°. 

Upright rests on a base measuring 3'-o". This 
is mortised together and braced with 2" x 3" ma- 
terial about 20" long, set at an angle of about 60°. 

Unless there are facilities for bracing at the top, 
as shown in the cut, the upright should be made 
longer and buried about 3' in the ground. 

The swinging rope (}i" diameter) passes 
through a hole bored in the top piece and held in 
place by a knot. Successive knots tied 8" to 9" 
apart and a big knot at the bottom make swinging 
easier for little folks. 

The Ladder and Support 

Ladder — 14" x io'-2". 

Sides of 13^" X 1/2" material. Rungs %" di- 
ameter set ioj4" apart. 

At upper ends of the sides a U-shaped cut acts 
as a hook'for attaching the ladder to the cross bar 
of the support. These ends are reenforced with 
iron to prevent splitting. 

Support — Height 4'-6". Spread of uprights at 
base 4'-2". 

Uprights of ij^" X 23/2" material are secured 
to a foot (l>4" X 4" X 20 >4") with braces (n^-^" 
X 2V2" X 12") set at an angle of about 60° 

Tops of the two uprights are halved and bolted 
to a cross bar 1%" x 2J/2" x 10" long. 

The uprights are secured with diagonal braces 



I'yi" X ^y/' X 3'-9" fastened together where they 
intersect. 

The Parallel Bars 

The two bars are 2" x 234" x 6'-io" and are 
set 163^" to iSyi" apart. The ends are beveled 
and the tops rounded. 

Each bar is nailed to two uprights (2" x 3" x 
5'-o") set 5' apart and extending 34" above ground. 
An overhang of about 6" is allowed at each end 
of the bar. 

The Cave or Den 

Children delight in an underground retreat of 
their own. Boys especially pass through an age 
of burrowing. A miniature "robbers' den" is 
what they want. 

A quantity of loose brick, some good-sized 
dry-goods boxes to be torn down for the lumber, 
and some utensils for digging, are the requisite 
here. Lay off the plan roughly, give a few sug- 
gestions, and turn the boys loose to do the work 
for themselves. Now, watch them imitate prim- 
itive man as they proceed to make a place to 
live and hide their plunder. Some toy weapons, 
fortifications, and other evidences of the defensive 
instinct may be expected to develop here. 

The Play-House 

An outdoor playhouse may be constructed 
without any considerable expense of time and 
money. Such a structure soon becomes a popular 
place of sociability and play for all the little ones 
of the neighborhood. Make the house as follows : 

Frame up a sand-box as directed above for 
outdoor use and consider this as the foundation 
of the house. Nail firmly to this the necessary 
number of 2 x 4 uprights 6 or 8 feet long. Frame 
up above as for an ordinary comb roof. Brace 
the corner uprights. Cover the roof with sheath- 
ing and with one-ply tar paper to keep out the 
sun and the major part of the rain. 

Leaving a space for the door or entrance, 
cover the sides all round with heavy-strand woven 
fencing-wire having the square mesh. This wire 
lets in- the light, keeps out the "enemy," and is 
good for climbing (for the children) and for 
the trailing vines which may be grown on the 
outside. 

The floor of the house is covered with four 
to six inches of sand. Seats, blocks, a hammock, 
a chair, a swing and other childish bric-a-brac 
may all serve .as furnishings. Here the story- 
hour may be enjoyed, or the mother may sit with 
her handwork while the little ones play. 



^ 5 SIXTH YEAR .S 5 



PLAYS AND GAMES FOR THE SIXTH YEAR 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



When a child has passed his fifth birthday he 
begins to enjoy games that have very simple rules. 
Help him to play fair. If he does not seem to 
follow the rules of a game, make them simpler 
so that he will understand them. 

Sense-Plays 

Hide the Ball. — The previous hiding-plays 
should be made more difficult. The object may 
be colored so that it will be almost indistinguish- 
able or it may be very small. If several children 
are playing, the one who sees the object must 
not show where it is but must sit down. When 
all are seated, the child who first saw the object 
gets it and hides it again. 

One from the Ring. — Have several different 
objects or balls of the six prismatic colors placed 
in a small ring on the floor. One child hides his 
eyes while another takes away one of the objects. 
.'\fter opening his eyes the child tries to guess 
which object has been removed. To make the 
game more difficult, increase the number and 
similarity of the objects. 

Hiding a Child. — A game similar to the above 
is played by a ring of children. One child closes 
his eyes and another leaves the ring. Then the 
one who closed his eyes tries to guess the name 
of the one who is hidden. 

Mask Game. — Several children hide their eyes 
while one child puts on a brownie or Jack-o'- 
Lantern mask, which can easily be made by the 
children with paper and crayon. As the children 
guess the name of the masked child, they whisper 
it to the leader and then take their seats. When 
all are seated, the first one to give the correct 
name has a chance to hide his eyes. Increase the 
difficulty of the game by covering the clothing also. 

Who Stoops Last. — Several children walk up 
and down the room. A march is played on the 
piano and stopped suddenly in the middle of a 
phrase. When the music ceases the children must 
stoop ; the last one to do so must return to his 



seat. Continue until only one child is left stand- 
ing. 

Put Hands On. — This game helps a child to 
follow the spoken word in opposition to his im- 
pulse to imitate an action seen. The children 
first practice putting both hands on wrists, toes, 
hips, etc., as the leader directs. Then, after ex- 
plaining that the children must do as she says 
and not as she does, she will direct them to 
"Place hands on knees," and at the same time 
will put her hands on her head. After a few trials, 
any child caught following the action rather than 
the word must sit ; the one who remains standing 
longest wins the game. 

What am I Doing? — One child closes his eyes 
while another walks, runs, knocks on floor, or 
makes a noise in some familiar way. The blind- 
folded child tries to guess what has been done. 

What is It? — Supply a bag containing miscel- 
laneous articles, such as spools, balls, buttons, 
blocks, etc. Let the children stand in a line with 
their hands behind them. One of their number 
places an object drawn from the bag in each 
child's hand and he must guess what it is by feel- 
ing of it without looking at it. 

Daffodils. — Let a child close his eyes. Hold 
a flower over his head or nearer if the perfume 
is faint. Then sing: 

"Daffodils and violets, 
Roses, sweet and fair, 
Tell me, pretty maiden, 

What have you in your hair? 

"Oranges, or grapes or plums, 

Apple, peach, or pear. 
One I place within your hand, 
Guess what you have there." 

This last stanza can be repeated for either a 
touching, tasting, or smelling game. 

Night Game. — Fear of the dark can be lessened 
if Mother will, once in a while, go with the child 
into a rather empty, dark room. Let Mother 
stand in the center while the little one goes a 



377 



378 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



short distance away, ringing a small bell. When 
the ringing stops Mother must find where the 
child is. Let the two take turns at this play. 

Movement-Plays 

A child of five tries to jump the rope, to slide, 
to whirl around, to hop a certain distance on one 
foot. Previously it has been a great feat to 
perform the act, now he begins to set a certain 
limit as a goal. 

Imitations become more exact and varied. The 
horses may walk, trot, gallop, and high-step. The 
birds may fly high up into the sky or low down, 
be large birds with widespread wings or tiny ones 
with small, quickly moving wings. The running 
may be done lightly, as a ball bounces. The 
hopping may be done on two feet and with body 
bent to imitate a frog. Arms can be waved up 
and down for windmills, while the body is held 
more rigid than for seesaws. The whole body 
can sway to represent the trees .blown by the 
wind. The adult should direct the child's atten- 
tion to the ways in which the plays can "be varied 
and woven together to form a tiny drama. 

Walk slowly; fast; like ponies. 

Walk with body bending forward, like horses 
drawing heavy load. 

Walk with long steps ; on tiptoe ; tall, like 
giants. 

March like soldiers. 

March with hands on head for caps; on shoul- 
ders for epaulets; waving for flags; imitating 
difl'erent band instruments. 

Run on line on tiptoe. 

Skip with two feet. 

Hop on one foot, then on other foot. 

Gallop like horses. 

Jump over low stick, like hurdle. 

Tramp like horses. 

Body down slowly ; up quickly. 

Body bent front and back at waist, hands on 
hips. 

Feet slide from side to side, like skating. 

Stretch hands up, pick apples from trees. 

Stretch hands down, pick apples from ground. 

Stretch up to take hold of rope ; pull far down. 

Clap hands quickly; slowly. 

Clap hands back ; front ; above head. 

Twirl hands quickly, slowly, like wheel. 

Arms extended, one up, other down, like wind- 
mill. 

Arms extended, push back, like rowing with 
oars. (This is reverse motion to actual rowing, 
but in this form is excellent exercise to expand 
the chest.) 

Twirl arms out, up. back, down, like wheels. 



(Give in this exact order; the reverse motion 
does not develop the chest or waist muscles.) 

Head bent up, down like toy sheep. 

Head sideways bend. 

Head roll sloivly. 

Ball-Plays 

Bounce or Toss Ball. — Bounce or toss the ball 
to music or to simple counting, limiting the win- 
ning point to small numbers at first. Counting 
eight to the descending scale gives a simple 
rhythm. 

Hoop Ball. — Toss the ball through a suspended 
hoop to a child on the other side of the room. 

Hot Ball. — The children are seated on the floor 
in a ring. A ball is rolled back and forth. The 
children must not grasp it, but push it away with 
the palms of their hands, not allowing it to touch 
them. A later development is to push the ball 
away with the back of the hand. Another varia- 
tion is to keep two balls rolling, one large and 
one small. 

Balls in the Ring. — Chalk a three-foot ring on 
the floor. Let the children, one at a time, try to 
roll their .balls so that they will remain in the 
ring ; or place several balls in the ring and let 
the children roll the balls to knock out those that 
are in the ring. 

Ball and Bell. — Suspend a bell from 3, small up- 
right standard. Let children stand in a row a 
short distance from the bell, each one with a 
ball, and at the signal "One, two, three, roll," 
they try one at a time to strike the low-swung bell. 

Ninepins. — Place six of the ninepins so that they 
form a triangle. Each child in turn has three 
balls and tries to roll them so as to throw down 
all the pins. Those who succeed have another 
chance ; those who do not must await their turn 
to try again. 

Dodge Ball. — The children form a ring with 
five or six in the middle. The children on the 
outside try to roll a large ball so that it will touch 
one of those in the center, who keep dodging it. 
As soon as touched, each one must return to his 
place in the ring. Continue until all have been 
sent back. When the children have become expert 
at dodging, use a smaller ball or let the large 
ball be tossed instead of rolled. 

Dramatic Play 

In the sixth year more incidents should be 
woven together in the plots and told more con- 
nectedly, with more descriptive language and ac- 
tion. The same subjects interest as the previous 
year, but the postman must have a bag, and the 
horse a pair of reins. Adults should not inter- 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



m 



fere by insisting on too complete a costume. In- 
terests will now be wider; other plays acted out 
may be fireman, farmer, teacher, storekeeper, ex- 
pressman, milkman, coal man, artist. The play 
of "train" may be so extended that stations are 
required, also ticket sellers, conductors, and engi- 



12. And then the wheat is threslied. 

13. 'Tis ground into the flour. 

14. The flour makes good bread. 

This is a long story and the children will prob- 
ably not care to reproduce the whole of it. It 
is given here as a suggestion. 



FINGERS AT PLAY' 



Annie B. Winchhstbr. 




-V -P h- 



What sball our Thumb - kin 






play? 



(dance) 
Thumb - kin shall ■ skip - to 
( run ) 



day; 



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-(=2- 



E^E^ 



=1= 



Dance, and dance, and dance a 



^^£^t= 



way, 



'- ^ r— 

Dance, and dance, and dance a - way. 



f^ 



m 



asE 



-z?- 



— I 1 1— 

Thia sball our Thumb - kin 



P^ 



play, 

-• 



Thumb - kin shall dance to 

-P- 



day. 



4: 



neers. The passengers may leave the train at a 
country station and drive a^way to visit friends 
and return to the city later. 

The Wheat. — The story of the wheat may be 
set to the familiar tune of "Farmer in the Dell." 
The verses might be 

1. The farmer in the field — 

2. The farmer takes a horse — 

3. The farmer takes a plow — 

4. The farmer plows the ground — 

5. The farmer sows the seed — 

6. The rain comes falling down — 

7. The sunbeams help to grow — 

8. The wheat grows up so tall — 

9. The farmer cuts it down — 

10. He ties it into bundles — 

11. He takes it to the barn. 



Longer Mother Goose rhymes may be acted 
out this year. 

Little Boy Blue.—Ont boy sits down under a 
table and pretends to sleep while two or three 
children wander around one part of the room 
(the "meadow") and eat grass while others eat 
"corn" in another corner. At a blast from "Little 
Boy Blue's" horn the "sheep" and "cows" run to 
some cover designated as the pasture or barn. 

Other Mother Goose rhymes are good, such as 
"Bo-peep," "Four and Twentv Blackbirds," "Baa, 
Baa, Black Sheep," "Hey Diddle, Diddle," and 
"Boys and Girls, Come Out to Play." 

Good stories for dramatization are "The Three 
Bears," "The Night Before Christmas," "Little 
Red Apple," and "The Shoemaker and the Elves." 



* From 
Company. 



'Ring Songs and Games," Lucy Wheelock Training School. Compiled by Flora H. Clifford. Milton Bradley 



K.N.— 26 



38o 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Finger-Plays 

THE WEATHER VANE 

From north and south and east and west 

The merry wind comes blowing ; 
And what its name and whence it came 
The weather vane is showing. 

THE MICE 

See the round mousehole ! 

Who is at home? 
Ring at the doorbell, 

Will anyone come? 
Yes, one comes creeping 

On his tiptoes. 
Number two follows. 

How soft he goes! 
Three chases after. 

Then four, then five. 
Off they all scamper. 

Then down, down they dive. 

COUNTING OUT 

Here, there; this, that; 
High, low ; stood, sat ; 
Red, blue ; whisper, shout ; 
This finger goes out. 

THE PLANT 

First a seed so tiny 

Hidden from the sight. 
Then two pretty leaflets 

Struggling toward the 
Soon a bud appearing 

Turns into a flower. 
Kissed by golden sunshine. 

Washed by silver shower, 
Growing sweeter, sweeter, 

Every happy hour, 
Kissed by golden sunshine. 

Washed by silver shower, 



light; 



Social Plays 



Lads and Lassics.- 
Rye." 



-Tune : "Comin" Thro' the 



"Lads and lassies out a walking chance some day to 
meet. 
First they bow, then clasping hands, dance with 

fairy feet. 
Tra, la, la, etc. 

"Lads and lassies, home returning, gayly wave good 
day. 
Hoping soon to meet again for a happy play. 
Tra, la, la, etc." 

The children walk in different directions as 
though on the street. At the words "First they 
bow," they bow to each other and then all join 
hands in one large ring. They dance to the right 
during the chorus. If desired, the chorus may 
be repeated while all dance to the left. At the 



beginning of the second verse the children sepa- 
rate and walk away, waving good-by. During the 
second chorus all clap hands to the music. 

Wind up the Fagot* — The children form a line 
with a large child at the head. Holding hands, 
the players wind slowly around the head child as 
a pivot, singing, "Wind up the bush fagot, and 
wind it up tight ; wind it all day and wind it all 
night," until all are wound up tight. Then all 
sing, "Stir up the dumplings, the pot boils over," 
singing faster and faster and jumping up and 
down, keeping time, until all are in a general 
mix-up. 

This game can be varied by having the head 
child lead the line into a smaller and smaller ring 
until he stands in the center. A more orderly 
way of dispersing — without the rollicking fun — 
is to have the head child reverse his steps and 
lead the line out into the large circle again. 

Little Boy and Playmates. — The children form 
in two rows facing each other, with one child 
halfway between them near one end. This child 
goes up and down between the rows, showing the 
action which all are to imitate. 



gi^l 



=1= 



-^— N 



^^ 



:5--!v 



'A lit - tie boy and all his plajmates then Went 



b|: 







out to (hop) and then (bopped) home a -gain." 

This song is repeated while the two sides ad- 
vance to the middle and return to their places, 
imitating the action of the leader. This child 
then chooses another to -be the leader. 

Fanner in the Field. — Tune: "Farmer in the 
Dell." One of the children is chosen for the 
farmer, and he, in turn, chooses a horse, cow, 
sheep, dog, hen, etc. 

This can be changed into a contest game by 
choosing but three of the animals — horse, cow, 
sheep. The farmer goes home, leaving the gate 
open, the animals all run out, and the farmer has 
a hard chase to catch them all. He inay need 
to select a helper. With this form of the game 
the verses of the song would be: 

1. The farmer in the field, etc. 

2. The farmer needs a horse, etc. 

3. The farmer needs a cow, etc. 

4. The farmer needs a sheep, etc. 

5. The farmer opens the gate, etc. 

6. The animals all run out, etc. 



• From George Ellsworth Johnson, "Education by Plays 
and Games." Used by permission of Ginn & Compaily. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



381 



After the animals are caught and the farmyard 
gate closed, sing: 

7. The animals all are home, etc. 

Seven. — The children stand in a ring. One 
child starts counting, beginning with himself, and 
when he has reached the seventh child, that child 



"La, la, la," etc. Both children then stand in 
front of partners and the game begins again. 

Race. — Two children start from a given point 
in front of the leader and run in opposite direc- 
tions around the circle until they reach the leader 
again. This game can be varied in numberless 
ways. A chair outside of the circle may be the 
starting-point and goal. The children may start 



Tune: "Muffin Man' 




m 



Oh, will you come and skip with me, and skip with 



me, 



i 



U^ 



-I- 



-I- 



and 



^ 



skip with me? Oh, will you come and skip with me, This hap - py, hap - py day? 

says "Run" or "Whirl," etc. ; they join hands and from the leader, touch -the wall, and run back ; 

perform the activity suggested while the whole this variation is better for si.x-year-old children, 

group counts seven. The second child then starts Playmates. — The children stand in a circle 

counting from his former position, and the game with one child seated in a chair in the center, 

begins again. If the group numbers seven or They walk around singing, while the one in the 



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Here sits 



Ut - tie play - mate, in 



a chair, 



chair, 



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cen - ter of our rmg 



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ver there, - ver there. Now rise up - on your 



-*— =^ 



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feet, 



And choose the one to greet. As man - y turn a - round once more. 



P 



3 



iSEiz 



1 — 

Here we dance - ver the green grass, Here we dance 



i 



ver the lea, 



See 



-w- *- 

then if 



Here we dance - ver . the green grass. 



you can find me I 



a multiple of it, some other number must be 
chosen. 

Skipping. — One child faces a partner and sings 
the following song. At the end they cross hands 
and skip together while the melody is repeated to 



middle suits his actions to the words of the song. 
At the end of the last line he extends his right 
hand to some child who comes forward, shakes 
hands, and then sits in the chair. 

Over the Lea. — The children dance around 



382 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Lightly. 




while one child .stands blindfolded in the center 
of room. At the close of the song all the chil- 
dren stoop. The one in the center then turns 
and walks until he can place his hand on some 
child's head. This child then becomes the one 
blindfolded. 

Dance 

Children stand in two concentric circles, part- 
ners facing each other. 

Clap to two measures. 

Dance with hands on hips to two measures. 

Repeat. 

Take partner by hands and circle in place to 
end. 

Bow, and inner circle moves one place to left 
for next partner. 

Repeat as often as desired or imtil each child 
meets his first partner. 

Children like to clap their hands, to dance in 
front of a partner, and to whirl around with their 
playmate. There are no steps in this dance which 
need to be taught. It can be suggested in what 
order the activities which they enjoy might come, 
but further than that an adult need not interfere 
with the child's free expression. 



PLAY WITH DOLLS 

COMPILED BY 

THE EDITORS 
'The doU is [tcrhaps as significant as the' statue,, the gargoyle, the coin." — .\lice Meynell. 



"The doll." Sully tells us, "takes a supreme place 
in the fancy realm of play." The complete adapt- 
ability of the doll makes it an ideal means for 
dramatic play. "A good, efficient, able-bodied 
doll, like the American girl's," says Joseph Lee, 
"is at home in any situation in life, from princess 
to kitchen maid, to which she may be called. And 
one doll in her time plays many parts. She has 
to, or lose her job." Besides this, so perfectly 
does the doll mingle with the child's own person- 
ality that it produces and maintains a complete 
feeling of oneness. Says Sully : "The dolly must 
do all and be all that I am ; so the child in his 
warm attachment seems to argue. This feeling 
of oneness is strengthened by that of exclusive 
possession, the sense that the child himself is 
the only one who really knows dolly, who can hear 
her cry when she cries, and so forth." 

A most thorough study of the interest of chil- 
dren in dolls was made several years ago at Clark 
University by A. Caswell Ellis and G. Stanley 



Hall. They found that the age of doll-play was 
chiefly from 4 to 14, with a rapidly increasing 
interest between 7 and 10, and with two years 
of greatest enthusiastn at 8 and 9. The great 
majority of little children prefer baby-dolls, 
larger children like child-dolls, and in general all 
children prefer dolls which represent an age some- 
what near but perhaps a trifle less than their own. 

The Educative Value of Doll-Play 

A questionnaire as to whether they believed 
doll-play had any effect upon their own moral and 
intellectual development when they were children 
was sent to a number of adults Forty-four 
thought such an influence was "good;" forty-one 
thought it helped in the preparation for future 
parenthood ; thirty-eight thought it helped to fit 
for domestic life; thirty-nine thought that it de- 
veloped morals; thirty-five thought it developed 
taste; thirty-five thought it furnished training in 
sewing. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



3S3. 



One or two miscellaneous facts are of interest. 
The investigators found that boys play with dolls 
as eagerly as do girls, but not for so long a time. 
It was their conviction that boys, if not ridiculed, 
would play with dolls more generally, and that 
they ought to have the profit which comes from 
such pleasure. As to whether doll-play is to be 
interpreted as an early outcropping of mother- 
love among girls, their judgment was negative, 
since they found that many women who were 
excellent mothers had never played with dolls, 
and that many girls who were extremely fond of 
dolls did not become especially domestic. They 
rather interpreted the apparent maternal tenden- 
cies as largely imitative. 

Dr. Ellis and Dr. Hall both would impress us 
that doll-play is of very great value, both as a 
means by which we who are parents may learn 
to understand our children and as a means of their 
part of self-education. In playing with dolls the 
childish instincts are open for observation. To 
their dolls the children whisper their most sacred 
confidences ; they f ee^ them their favorite foods 
and even project upon them the symptoms of on- 
coming maladies. What they are with, and feel 
toward, their dolls is what they most largely are 
and feel themselves. Doll-play has very great 
educative value. Young children have been known 
to learn to read so as to teach their dolls. They 
construct miniature villages for them and thus get 
valuable handicraft training; they take them upon 
imaginary journeys and thus learn to know about 
the outer world. These investigators go so far 
as to say that doll-play could aid in teaching 
everything that is being taught in the kindergar- 
ten, and that therefore dolls ought to be a cen- 
tral educational appliance in that institution. 

If these things are true, it behooves the mother 
to observe most carefully the play of her children 
with dolls. By its use she may learn to un- 
derstand them better than in any other way, and 
by skillfully directing such play she may do more 
for their mental and moral awakening than by 
any other process. The bright mother needs only 
a suggestion to apply this thought. Through a 
doll-supper or a doll-party a little child may learn 
table manners; in doll-discipline she may learn 
to discipline herself; in the making and care of 
the doll's clothing and in doll housekeeping she 
may learn the simpler housewifely arts ; while 
playing with other girls in a doll community she 
may learn lessons of sharing and generosity. 

The doll has a special value in developing the 
child's love for his home. The next interest with 
babies after ball-play is in their home surround- 
ings. The doll becomes the personality around 
which play with home things and home occupa- 



tions may most readily center. So, as Patty Rod- 
man tells us, "dolls that can be dressed and un- 
dressed are best, for they give the little hands 
something to do. The child is a doer of deeds, 
and will imitate all the acts and sayings of those 
about him. He learns to do by doing; so a whole- 
some suggestion and good example from the 
mother are necessary to direct activity. The 
mother's task is to conserve this energy." 

We have in play with dolls. Miss Meredith 
Smith says, an important method of moral influ- 
ence. "One example,"' she continues, "may per- 
haps make this more clear. At one time, when a 
group of kindergarten children were playing with 
their dolls, a number of them laid the dresses just 
taken off on the floor. After some remark about 
teaching children to take care of their clothes, I 
noticed a child quickly pick up his doll's dress 
and say to himself. 'I'm not going to teach my lit- 
tle girl to throw her things on the floor.' The 
interesting thing about it was that teaching his 
little girl meant doing it himself, for it did not 
seem to occur to him to make any pretense of 
playing the doll was picking them up. 

"Is it not true, though this is what zve would 
call play, that there is a strong element of reality 
in it to children? In such absorbing occupation 
they are really living. Dolls are to them other 
people. And if it be true that children become 
like what they imitate, we must believe that char- 
acter will be influenced and modified for the bet- 
ter in this reproduction of human life through 
play." 

How to Make the Doll the Center of Play- 
Activities in the Home 

A mother entered her five-year-old son in a 
kindergarten. She took him there every day, 
and once in a wliile staj-ed with her three-year- 
old daughter to visit. Noticing that the chil- 
dren were happy .because they were busy with 
work which appealed to them, and that the doll's 
house was frequently the center of attraction, 
she decided to allow her little ones to make a 
house at home. For twenty cents two wooden egg- 
boxes were secured from the grocer, amid much 
excitement on the part of the children. 

The boxes were taken straight to the children's 
corner, and it was decided that work should be 
done on them on rainy days only, and that the 
children were to do all of the work if possible. 

At their dictation. Mother made a list of the 
things they intended to do: paint the outside of 
the boxes white; make a curtain across the front; 
have a kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room and 
bedroom; paper the rooms; make rugs for the 
floors, and make furniture for the different 



38a 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



rooms. The next thing to do was to prepare a 
list of the various materials needed: paint, paper, 
scissors, thumbtacks, cardboard boxes, spools, 
glue, scalloped-edged tissue-paper napkins for 
window curtains, white oilcloth, japalac, and so 
on. These lists were not completed at once, but 
added to as the children fliought of things, or as 
new things were made for the kindergarten doll- 
house, which served as their model. 

All this was splendid training in memory and 
in concentration, for it kept the attention di- 
rected toward one object, and at the same time it 
was sufiiciently varied work not to become mo- 
notonous. It also developed skill in the use of 
the hands. Mother, who was just as enthusi- 
astic as the children, would occasionally suggest 
something of which they had not thought, and 
sometimes in their walks they would stop at 
shop-windows to play a new game which this 
occupation had suggested, "finding treasures for 
the doll-house." 

The children were allowed to ask the shop- 
clerks for the material, and sometimes they paid 
for it with their own money, for Mother knew 
that, like "grown-ups," they would prize things 
more if they bought them with money of their 
own than if the things were given to them. In 
this way the boy learned to count, and both real- 
ized, to a slight degree at least, the relation be- 
tween value and price ; also that they could buy 
only what they could afford. 

For example, one day they planned to buy a 
paint-brush with five pennies they had saved 
together. When they reached the store they 
noticed first a large attractive brush, but found 
it was ten cents. There were smaller five-cent 
brushes, but it would take more than they had 
to get one for each. Little Daughter wanted 
Mother to give them the extra five cents needed, 



and Son wished her to lend it to them, but both 
these suggestions were finally ruled out, with in- 
calculable value to both children. There was 
quite a long debate and a hard struggle in each 
little head before the final decision was reached 
— to buy one five-cent brush and each take turns 
using it. 

Materials were kept in a covered box on top 
of the doll's house. The children returned every- 
thing to this box when they were ready to stop 
play for the day, including their aprons, which 
Mother had made large enough to cover them 
completely, and sheets of a newspaper, which 
were used to spread on the floor to protect the 
rug from stains. 

It took a number of days to paint the outside 
of the house, as little children can not remain at 
one occupation long, and many articles were made 
for the rooms during this time. The wall-paper 
was cut from a sample book given by a neighbor- 
ing wall-paper firm — blue and white tiled paper 
for the kitchen, flowered paper for the other 
rooms. Rugs were cut from mail-order catalogs 
and pasted on stiff cardboard. Tables, chairs, 
and bed were made of paper boxes with spool 
legs. The kitchen sink was made of a small tin 
box fastened to the wall with two square brass 
hooks, inverted, to represent hot and cold water 
faucets. 

This house was kept for several years, but the 
interior was constantly changed as the children 
became more efficient in handwork. There was 
no whining, "What shall we do?" They would 
play for long periods at this favorite occupation 
while Mother sat by and mended and made their 
clothes. She, for her part, never became irritable 
when they interrupted for legitimate assistance, 
for she realized the wonderful lessons they were 
constantly learning. 



AN INTRODUCTION TO NATURE STUDY. 



BY 



JESSIE SCOTT HIAIES 



The mere turning of children loose in Nature is 
not enough. They want you to go with them, if 
possible ; and they certainly want your interest. 

As Tom grows older he begins to ask questions. 

"How does the water go through the pipes? 
How did it get into the pipes? Where is the 
reservoir? How does the water get into it? 
Where do the streams start?" 

"Hath the rain a father? 
Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?" 



You know all about this endless questioning. 
It has driven you to your wits' end many a time, 
but did you ever think that when you are driven 
into a tight corner you might say something like 
this? 

"I don't know how that is, but we will try to 
find out together. Everything has a secret to tell 
about itself, a secret that those who ask can find 
out by watching the thing itself, by experimenting 
and thinking. Only those who are patient enough 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



385 



to ask over and over find out the great secrets, 
but we will try together." 

In this word together lies courage and promise 
of success. A child's interests are apt to be ca- 
pricious ; so it is Mother's interest and encourage- 
ment that keeps the boy's instinctive curiosity 
going until it gains results to the point, and then 
it is her enthusiasm which leads him on in col- 
lecting material and experimenting with it until 
a habit of intelligent observation is formed. 

Mother and Tom and the Frogs' Eggs 

For example, Tom is curious about frogs' eggs. 
The other boys dip the white jelly-like masses 
out of the pond into tin cans and keep them in 
the backyard. Tom does the same, but after 
watching them for a few days for signs of change, 
he finds a bluish-white coating forming on all the 
tiny black balls of the jelly mass and the odor of 
the water offensive, demanding that it be thrown 
away. If Mother is then consulted about the 
project, she points out that the cans have been 
left in the hot sun a part of the day, the water has 
become too warm, and has thus caused the decay 
of the eggs. She helps Tom to think of the con- 
ditions prevailing where the eggs were obtained, 
so as to know how to provide an artificial home 
for them as comfortable as possible. Water shut 
into a tin can or even a glass jar becomes warm 
and stale. A broader surface exposed to the air 
makes aeration possible, more as it is in the pond, 
so the next batch of frogs'-eggs- jelly is placed 
in a large pan containing the pond's own water 
with perhaps a little of its mud and a few of its 
green growing plants. It is set in a light place 
but in a north exposure, where there is no danger 
of sunlight overheating it. There the tadpoles 
flourish and develop in fine style, and Tom, find- 
ing that partnership with Mother yields good 
returns, will share his next venture with her. 

The Place of Books in Nature Study 

• 

However, Tom's growing confidence in Moth- 
er's wisdom may give rise to some anxiety on her 
part lest she be not always prepared as a helper. 
Then it is that she will appreciate the Book- 
shelf volumes on Nature and Outdoor Life for 
her own reference and for inspiration to first- 
hand study. Only let her never feel it necessary 
to cram zvith facts from hooks. Nature study was 
never meant'to be a mere accumulation of facts, 
never primarily book work, not even a course in 
biology, but rather an opportunity to develop, 
through actual contact, "a sympathetic acquaint- 
ance with Nature." and "to learn to see the things 
that one looks at." according to Dr. Bailey of 
Cornell, who has been one of the leaders in the 



great movement for nature study in this country. 
So 

"Bring not the fancies found in books. 
Leave authors' eyes and fetch our own." 

The one most important thing is that the chil- 
dren have the actual contact with Nature together 
with Mother's fellowship in their interest. 

Sample Questions and How to Get Answers 

Why do dandelions spread their leaves out like 
a wheel lying flat to the earth in Fall, Winter, and 
early Spring, but hold them up straight in the tall 
grass? How can they hold their seed balloons 
up so high above the lawn in the morning when 
Father cut the grass the night before and all the 
dandelions, supposedly, were mowed down ? Let 
us watch and see. 

How can a baby robin eat so many worms, more 
than his own bulk? Do birds have any work to 
do? How long does it take to dig 152 worms for 
a baby robin's daily food? Try it and you will 
know. 

How did the stream happen to take such a 
crooked course through the town ? Experiment 
with water in a sand-pile, using also a few pieces 
of rock. 

What became of the pollywogs' tails? How did 
Mr. Toad change his coat? He srvaUowed it! 
Oh, the millions of fascinating, curious things 
that the out of doors holds ! 

If the children discover wonders for them- 
selves, well and good. If they have queries, en- 
courage them to pursue them to their solution. 
Make excursions with them to see the gathering 
of the harvest of fruits, vegetables, and grain. 
Call attention to the need of man's care for do- 
mestic animals in contrast to the wild creatures' 
care for themselves. Notice their adaptability 
for this and the many devices for protection in 
coloring and habits that Nature has given them. 
Gather berries for food, for home decoration, 
and for the little ones to string with reeds or 
grasses cut into short lengths. Gather branches 
of gay leaves and autumn wildflowers; collect 
seed-cases and examine the scores of curious 
means of seed-scattering. The children did not 
know that the burrs that clung to their stocking 
legs or to the cows' tails were seeking a ride to 
a new home. Even seeds have their own indi- 
viduality and their own curious habits. 

Everything has its story and every day out of 
doors is a puzzle picture. 

How to Study the Habits of Plants 

The children will enjoy getting acquainted with 
the various plants and trees. The first step, of 
course, like a favorable introduction to a person, 



386 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



is to stand face to face with the plant and to hear 
its name distinctly pronounced. A little child is 
athirst for just such experiences. In the period 
of acquirement of language the names of things 
and of attributes of things are sweet food to a 
voracious child-mind. The oft-repeated "What's 
that?" or "What is its name?" give us the clue 
to this interest. So make the most of your chance 
to introduce the children to as many flowers, trees, 
shrubs, grasses, and ferns as possible. 

It will not be long before they will discover 
that each has its own place to live and its own 
manner of growth. We do not realize that chil- 
dren are thinking about these things until some 
day even the five-year-olds surprise us by saying 
that apple, cherry, and pear blossoms are tree 
flowers, that lilacs, roses, and peonies are bush 
flowers, that yellow violets, trilliums, and adder 
tongues are woods flowers, that tulips and pan- 
sies live in gardens, blue violets and strawberry 
blossoms grow in the meadow, and white clovers 
and dandelions on the lawns and roadsides. Then 
it will be great fun to make long lists of these 
various classes on a blackboard — if you 'have a 
large one- — or on sheets of paper pinned to the 
wall or in a notebook. See which list will be the 
longest. It will be a motive for observation 
through many happy days in fields and woods and 
will amount to a sort of inventory of one's ac- 
quaintance with plant life. 

There are other games of classification for the 
very little children. They love to handle the 
flowers, and can enjoy selecting and arranging 
them. Let them have a plenty of empty bottles 
or small glass jars, enough so that each variety 
of flower can be placed by itself. Then the vari- 
ous small bouquets may be arranged according 
to color, fragrance or the lack of it, size of blos- 
som, variety of stem — that is, woody or tender — 
length of stem, or according to any other basis 
that seems interesting. 

After the children have discovered the places 
where various flowers like best to live, it is only 
a step further to learn that they like to live in 
family or neighborhood groups. There are trees 
and shrubs, low-growing plants and mosses that 
can always be found living near each other in 
the woods. If you see one you can be fairly sure 
that the others are close by. There is an entirely 
different group in the swamp-land and another in 
the open sandy spaces. To get acquainted with 
the various members of each group is an interest- 
ing study for the older children, who will enjoy 
reading about the reclamation of desert land in 
the west and the transference of plant families 
to suit the changed conditions of soil and ex- 
posure. 



Sometimes the same plant will show difference 
of growth according to its environment, lying 
in a flat rosette in one spot and stretching its 
leaves in long upright fronds in a shadier place. 
This way of looking at plants as real, living 
things, affected by conditions very much as peo- 
ple are, is one secret of helping children to know 
and love them. Froebel says, 

"Because he lives himself, the child 
Oft thinks that all things live, 
And pours his little heart upon 
That which no love can give. 

"But when his life, outreaching, meets 
With answering life around. 
His wistful eyes are lit with joy 
That comrades he has found." 

This represents the child's attitude, but it is 
al.so a matter of science that all plant life is "an- 
swering life," responding to conditions and being 
modified thereby. Each kind of plant has its own 
distinctive character and a reason for all its being 
and doing. For example, take the dandelion, 
whose cheerful, aggressive, never-say-die char- 
acteristics have led it to the place of conqueror 
in all too many grass plots. 

How to Know the Dandelion 

It is a child's flower, with blossoms enough 
to satisfy the desire of all, and in possibilities 
as play material excelling most plants. To begin 
with, let it "tell if Mother wants you" or "tell 
the time of day." Make chains and curls, wreaths 
and whistles, but do not let its acquaintance drop 
there. Discover its persistence, its cleverness in 
adaptation by some such pathway as follows : 

Select for observation a single well-developed 
dandelion plant. Mark it and watch it day after 
day to discover its 

I. Habits. 

• Where it lives. 

Who are its plant neighbors. 

Who are its visitors. 

How it keeps warm. 

How it keeps clean. 

How it drinks. 

How it sleeps. 

What it does on rainy days. Sunny days. 

How it takes care of its buds, as to protec- 
tion and food. 

How it makes blossoms. 

How it makes seeds. 

How it scatters seeds. 

Later, select other plants in varying locations 
and compare them with the first. 




NATURE STUDY— I 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



387 



2. How the plant is made : 

( 1 ) Shape and arrangement of leaves. 

(2) Placuig of buds in relation to leaves. 

(3) Kind of stem. 

(4) Structure of bud cup. 

(5) Structure of the blossom. Many sepa- 
rate flowers. Count them. 

(6) Seeds and their sails. 

3. How each part helps the whole — that is, 
relation of structure to habits: 

(1) The leaves protect and feed the whole 
plant. They lie close to the earth for warmth 
and they spread in a rosette to get the most 
light possible. 

They surround the buds and flowers so as to 
feed them most easily. 

(2) The roots help to feed and water the 
whole plant. 

They hold the plant in place. 
Note the difficulty of removing the whole root 
from the ground. 

(3) The stem is cylindrical for strength and 
economy. Being hollow, it serves its purpose of 
raising the flower or seed-vessels quickly, with 
least expenditure of food and force. 

(4) The bud cup holds together the large group 
of flowers and makes it possible for scores to 
mature as easily as one. It holds the seeds and 
protects them while they are ripening. 

(5) The blossom calls the bees and furnishes 
honey and pollen to them. 

(6) When the seeds are ripe, the bud-cup turns 
downward and lifts the little white circle that the 
seeds stand on, thus spreading the seed-balloon. 

(7) The tiny parachutes carry the seeds away 
to new homes. They need new homes because 
there are too many of them to find food in a 
single spot of earth. 

4. Who the dandelion's friends are — the bees 
in particular: 

(i) What they do for it. 

(2) What it gives them. 

(3) How the bees use flower dust. 

(4) How the flowers use it to make seeds. 

5. What dandelions are good for: 
(i) Food for people. 

(2) Food for cattle. 

(3) Medicine. 

(4) Beauty, cheerfulness, and to teach many 
wonderful secrets to those who have 
eyes to see and minds to think. 

By skillful questioning help the children to dis- 
cover for themselves if possible all of this mate- 
rial. Make it a part of the game to find the 



story directly from the plant itself and do not 
use books e.xcept as a last resort. 

This general procedure may be followed in get- 
ting acquainted with any form of plant life. 
Everything has its story and every day out of 
doors is like a puzzle picture. 

The Care of Pets 

One of the best means of learning to take re- 
sponsibility and thoughtful care for others lies 
in the care of pets, because their appeal is so 
strong. Pretty as the garden's bloom may be, 
interesting as it is to watch the growth of plants, 
and satisfying as it may be to eat their fruits, 
the companionship of friendly animals is worth 
more to the average child. 

Pansies may dry up in silence, but if Rover 
needs a drink he has a way of telling his little 
master of his neglect and of winning sympathy 
as well as water. If he is well and promptly fed, 
the friendly wagging of his tail speaks his pleas- 
ure and gives approval to the thoughtful child. 
His happiness lies in fellov^fship with the chil- 
dren, his care of them is watchful and efficient, 
and his affection for them may call out their 
kindest care. Yet children are so used to re- 
ceiving care and never giving it that they may 
be careless and naughty to a friend as patient 
and unfailingly loyal as a dog. It is the appeal 
of the helplessness of little things that wins the 
best from all of us. The soft, furry balls of 
kittens who can not yet see, the straggling, weak- 
kneed puppies, the baby rabbits shivering with 
the cold before their fur has grown — all these 
win the tenderness of a child. Is it because he, 
too, knows what it is to be helpless? At any 
rate, there is no better way to teach a child to 
value a mother's care than to let him see the 
mother rabbit pulling out her own soft fur to 
warm her little ones: the mother bird nestling 
her fledglings, ugly little cry-babies though they 
are, is busily searching for food for them; the 
mother hen clucking her chickens to safe shelter 
under her wings; the mother cat dressing her 
kittens with never-ceasing care for their clean- 
liness. Thus the children are prepared to know 
and understand somewhat of their own mother's 
devoted care. So gratitude springs. 

Some parents are finding that the care of pets 
makes a suitable opportunity for introducing chil- 
dren to the laws of reproduction. It is true that 
from three to five or six years of age children 
are in a condition of innocent teachableness that 
especially prepares them to learn from Nature's 
object lessons in all purity, and surely this is 
preferable to having children learn things that 
should be sacred from the lips of playmates that 



388 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



may have been polluted, ever so little. One can 
never tell how early such whisperings of evil 
may begin. Therefore, it is advisable that before 
the school age, certainly, there should be some 
home teaching about the origin of life and the 
mother care of little ones before their birth. Ob- 
servation of the life of pets may well be the 
occasion for such instruction, which should be 
given in such a way as to make the children 
free to come again with any similar questions 
that might arise. It is advisable to speak of such 
things quite simply and naturally, and yet to teach 
the children that they are only to be talked over 
with Mother or Father, like certain other private 
affairs of life, not for general conversation. 

To leave the children to learn from Nature 
alone is not likely to be satisfactory, for curiosity 
will enter in, and imless confidence between par- 
ents and children is established so that children 
feel free to ask questions, more harm than good 
may be done. 

Inasmuch as human life is in reality far differ- 
ent from all other life, it is probably quite as well 
for the mother to tell the story about the human 
baby in the first place, whenever the child shows 
by questioning that he is wondering about such 
things. That story, more than any other, can 
quicken tenderness and gratitude in a child's 
heart, if it is simply and reverently told. 

It is a good plan to let children have some pets 
for their very own, for which they alone are 
responsible, as soon as they are old enough to 
give the necessary care. But it is also well to be 
prepared to entertain, for a few days at a time, 
other animal visitors — a wild rabbit, a tame duck 
or hen, a pair of pigeons, a turtle, or a toad. In 
such case the first thought should be for the 
comfort of the visitor, and a place should be 
provided as near like the natural habitat as pos- 
sible. An "animal house," so-called, may be made 
of galvanized wire netting, about ^-inch mesh. 
It should be about 30 x 18 inches, with a zinc 
bottom and a roof of netting. In the middle of 
one long side there should be a door about ten 
inches square with hinges and a hasp lock. There 
should be legs one inch high at the corners. 
This is light enough to be moved about easily, 
open to the view, and adaptable to many kinds 
of occupants. 

Sawdust, straw, or sand can be put in the bot- 
tom when occupied by fowls; half of it may be 
carpeted for a rabbit, and he will sleep and rest 
there. The bottom of the cage can be covered 
with soft mud and moss for a toad, and the mud 
should be kept moist. A toad does not drink but 
absorbs moisture through its skin, and to that 
end buries itself in wet earth. For frogs, sala- 



manders, and turtles, a photographer's black ba- 
sin, or any pan, can be set in and filled with 
water to make a pond. Mud, mosses, and grasses 
may be set around it and a stone large enough 
to project out of the water may be placed in the 
tiny "pond." 

When the visitors go, and they should never 
be kept long enough to suffer discomfort, the 
house can be washed with a hose and made per- 
fectly sanitary for the next occupant. 

A case for cocoons can be made of wire net- 
ting of the same kind, in shape suitable to be set 
outside a window and fastened to the ledge. This 
keeps them in natural conditions of moisture and 
temperature, and thus prevents shriveling and 
drying of the imago. 

The door of the animal house can be left open 
after the visitor has made himself at home. If 
he has been fed in the house and otherwise made 
comfortable, he will return to it — a rabbit, toad, 
or pigeon, at least, will do so. 

Toads like to have their heads stroked from 
front to back and will become quite tame. They 
are such very useful creatures, and j'et so often 
misunderstood and subject to injury, that every 
child should be assisted to make intelligent ac- 
quaintance with them. It is well to have a re- 
serve of handkerchiefs or similar soft cloths with 
which to handle toads and frogs. Though they 
really can not harm one, it is more agreeable to 
use a cloth. 

How to Know a Pet Animal 

The children will spend many happy hours 
watching these various visitors. The mother's 
part will be the establishment, by example, of 
an attitude of friendly consideration for them all. 
For successful results later, "early attitude is far 
more important than early teaching." and yet, 
doubtless, some direction of the child's thinking 
will be helpful. One might outline a plan of 
procedure like this: 

1. Purpose. 

The one main purpose of developing, through 
experience, a sympathetic acquaintance with 
Nature, should dominate all that is done. 
There may well be secondary aims in the 
parent's mind, such as to encourage 

( 1 ) Intellectual curiosity. 

(2) Freedom and accuracy in language ex- 
pression. 

(3) Self-control for the sake of timid crea- 
tures. 

(4) Nurture of helpless things. 

2. Method. 

An acquaintance involves a certain degree 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



389 



of knowledge gained through contact. For 
it to be sympathetic there must be some ap- 
preciation of the creature's relation to one's 
own life, his home, his manner of life, his 
friends, the conditions of his well-being, his 
pleasure, or his trouble. 

These facts underlie method. With these in 
mind the following suggestions for teaching 
are made : 

(i) Informal observation with children's 
questions answered by themselves as far 
as possible. 
(2) A\'hen a question is raised which the 
children can find out for themselves by 
continued observation, but have not yet 
solved, it should be re-stated concisely 
'by the parent as a definite problem to 
be pursued together. 

3. Questions that may be asked. 
What is it? 

Would it hurt you ? How do you know ? 

Where does it live ? 

Who takes care of it? 

Can it take care of itself? How? 

What does it eat? 

How does it eat? Try it. 

What does it drink ? 

How does it drink? Experiment. 

Is it happy now? What makes you think so? 

Is it frightened? 

What makes you think so? 

What can it do that you do ? 

What can it do that you can not do ? 

How is it dressed? 

What has it that we have ? 

What has it that we have not? 

How can we make it comfortable ? 

Does it like you ? How can you tell ? 

4. Encourage the children to tell their father 
or other children what they have discovered. 

5. The importance of the parent's use of con- 
cise English must be emphasized. The use 
of many words blurs the thought. Nature 
study should not involve much talking by 
parent or teacher. 

The interest in dress and habits of such crea- 
tures, and the response of their helplessness to 
one's care, make ample reward for the trouble 
they cause. However, one can not be too em- 
phatic in warning against the discomfort or death 
of such visitors. Better far never to take them 
from their home than to let them come to grief. 
So also in gardening. Too often plant culture in 



the house is a failure. Plants in egg-shells or 
small jars lack sufficient moisture and die. Care- 
lessness in providing necessary conditions for 
bulb culture for early spring blooming means 
blighted growth, and often no blossoms at all. 
This is a case where learning by experience is 
too hard for any child. Successive failures would 
probably result in total loss of interest, so it is 
well for Father and children together to consult 
Mrs. Higgins' garden guide in the Bookshelf 
(vol. IV, page 135), or some other equally good 
manual. 

It is true that in many cases parents may well 
"keep silence even from good words," while the 
children listen to Nature's secrets at first hand, 
but yet Mother's interest should always stand 
ready in the background to give needed guidance 
or approval, to help to hold curiosity to a definite 
track of observation, to assist in experiment, to 
encourage one to patience in awaiting results or 
in the making of records, until out of nature 
study grow the careful habits that make for 
scientific investigation. 

How came there to be an Edison but by such 
persistent study and experimentation ? How came 
Marconi to find the wondrous power of the air 
to serve man's intercourse? How came an Au- 
dubon to understand the life of birds and know 
their haunts ? How came Muir to explore the 
secrets of our American glaciers? 

Yet it is not that we may have a greater race 
of scientists that we encourage nature study, but 
that children may be enriched by the training of 
their own power to appreciate and enjoy life, to 
know their own resources and to exult in them. 
It is to teach them to appropriate riches that 
will not take unto themselves wings and fly away, 
but which will stand by one, increasing with the 
years, proving a rest and a refreshment to the 
wearied man or woman of middle life. 

Who Are the Blind? 

Nature is full of beauty — beauty free to all. 
Shall we throw it aside or close our eyes, refus- 
ing to look and be made glad because it is free? 
Shall we underestimate its value because we do 
not pay a paltry dime to behold it? There is 
an entrance requirement which is worth infinitely 
more than any fee to a box seat. It is the ability 
to enjoy, the power to appreciate. 

I was walking along Canal Street in New York 
on a late winter afternoon. Pushcarts had been 
pulled aside and the street was fairly open. One 
could in places look into the squalid habitations 
of men, and dark and dirty, smelly and unwhole- 
some they all were, surely, but the western sky 
was aflame with sunset tints, deep red and glow- 



390 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



ing gold, and silhouetted against it the stately 
outlines and towers of those great lower New 
York buildings. It was a glorious picture, beauty 
free to all, and yet I saw not one response in a 
human face, though I looked curiously and eag- 
erly at them as they walked to and fro. Their 
sense of appreciation had not been quickened. 
Their hearts* occupation with sordid, material 
things had shut their eyes to a picture unequaled, 
in its way, by any the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art could show. There was refreshment to be 
had for an upward glance, but the hurrying crowds 
of people were blind: perhaps, because their 
mothers had never taught them to see. How 
could a mother teach her child to see beauty? 

Learning to See 

First of all, in just, the way she teaches him 
other things, by enjoying it herself so he could 
learn by imitation. He sees his mother enjoying 
a sweetmeat and he wants to taste and enjoy it 
too. He sees his father smoke, perhaps, and he 
must have a make-believe pipe. It is a child's 
way of understanding things, and it gives an 
easy clue to ways of teaching. No method is so 
potent as example. 

Well do I remember rousing from sleep in the 
early hours of a clear winter night, feeling my 
mother's gentle arms lifting me up and wrapping 
me in a great blanket shawl and then carrying 
me to the piazza or open window where we could 
look at the stars. I don't remember what she 
said. There was something about Mars or Jupi- 
ter and a conjunction. I suppose I looked at what 
she showed me. but the particular thing learned 
was of no consequence. It was what I felt 
through or in her. Those stars in their clear 
brilliance in the blue-black sky were a deep joy 
to her, and because she was happy she wanted to 
share it with her children. So we looked and 
felt also, and the influence of those silent nights 
has lived with us ever since. When we are 
weary or restless the stars have a peculiar charm. 
Curiosity led us as we grew older to find out 
about those mysterious planets, orbits, and con- 
junctions that Mother found so interesting. Im- 
itation was the earliest response, but it issued in 
intelligent understanding and pleasure. 

There is beauty in sound, and we learned to 
enjoy that by imitation also. 

"Hark!" Mother would say on the still Sun- 
day evening in Summer. "Listen, children !" and 
then, stopping for a minute to see what she meant, 
we would hear the sweet sound of a bell far 
away. "It is the Lansing church bell," she would 
say, but though we ran off again to our play 



there was a light in her face as she listened that 
had some deep meaning in it, and we would often 
stop again, saying to ourselves : 

"It is the Lansing church bell. Listen !" And 
as we listened, the stillness of the summer night, 
the near chirping of crickets, katydids, and other 
little garden creatures, the sweet fragrance of the 
fields in bloom, and the far-off chime of the little 
church bell in the village over the hill, which we 
had never seen, were all mingled in our thought 
with the light in Mother's face, and so we learned 
to care for the music in night sounds. 

On a warm, moist March morning Father re- 
marked as he came from the barn, "We can 
smell the Spring in the air to-day." 

"What is the smell of 3pring?" we asked. 

"Oh, it is the smell of the earth growing bare, 
the smell of swelling buds, or the moist sweetness 
of the south breeze." So we little folks went 
trudging about, sniffing of bare earth to learn 
the secret, or holding our faces up to the soft 
wind like young deer learning life through their 
noses. 

The summertime brought new-mown hay, the 
dainty fragrance of white clover with the bees 
in it, apple bloom and roses, and the fragrance of 
fruits and burning leaves made Autumn sweet. 

So, through teaching us to enjoy, our lives were 
stored with treasure. Sometimes it was the 
moonlight making patterns on our floor or the 
frost decorating our windows ; sometimes it was 
the beating of the rain on the roof or the croon- 
ing of the wind in the pines; sometimes it was 
the howling of the wind about the house on wild 
nights, rattling window-blinds and doors, ruffling 
the hair on our brows as it came in the open 
window, even shaking the house on its founda- 
tions ; all, somehow, were for us, we felt. 

"Did you hear the wind howl in the night?" 
Mother asked. "It makes one feel very snug and 
warm in his bed." We loved it for its power 
and its sweet breath. We cared a good deal to 
learn about it as we grew older — what made the 
wind, how the weather-man could tell, by com- 
paring the various barometric readings, what the 
weather would be. We learned of cloud forma- 
tion, how to know the signs of rain or of clear- 
ing weather. Every day was different from the 
otliers, each with its own interest and cheer, and 
not until years after, when we went away from 
home, did we learn that some people fret about 
the weather and hate the sighing of the wind; 
that the dripping of the rain can make one nerv- 
ous and the falling of the leaves bring depression. 

Oh, open the eyes of your children to see that 
every season has its own glory and every day 
its own gladness. 




NATURE STUDY— II 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



391 



"In rose time or in berry time. 

When ripe seeds fall or buds peep out. 

When green the grass or white the rime, 

There's something to be glad about." 

So it is that children's minds are prepared to 
understand and enjoy the imagery of literature, 
and nature poetry becomes a familiar language. 
So, also, a child is led to know the great Creator 
and to love Him for His gracious benefits, as 
one of His little ones said in her evening prayer 
of spontaneous thanksgiving, "Dear God, thank 



you for the apples, the plums, the pears, and the 
bread and milk. I love you. Good-night." 

To be awake to all the wonders of our daily 
experience makes one reverent of life. With daily 
miracles before our eyes we have no need for 
doubt of miracles, past or future. With eyes 
opened to behold the glory of each passing season 
one's heart is tuned to Nature's hymn: 

"Honor and majesty are before Him: strength and 
beauty are in His sanctuary." 



BETTY'S NATURE FRIENDS* 



BY 



MRS. ELIZABETH HUBBARD BONSALL 



fuzzy hairs and gum, to protect them from injury 
from the winter rains and melting snow. And 
after the leaves fall their usefulness is not over, 
for they decay, forming leaf-mold, which is valu- 
able for the soil. 

The Birds 

There is a noticeable stillness in the woods 
and bushes now, for most of our birds are gather- 
ing in groups, preparing to fly to the south. 
Their colors are not so bright as in the spring, 
and sometimes it is hard to recognize our friends. 
It seems strange to have them disappear without 
even saying "good-by" or thanking us for the 
care we have taken of them, or telling us that 
they hope to see us next Spring ! One by one 
our winter friends — the chickadees, juncos, and 
others — come back, and it is a good plan to put 
down the dates when they are first seen, for com- 
parison from year to year. 

The birds' nests are more conspicuous now that 
the leaves are gone, and we are always surprised 
to find how many birds are living right near us 
that we never knew about ! Betty has quite a 
collection of vacant nests that she has gathered 
in the Fall. Such a difference there is in them ! 
Some are beautifully woven and carefully secured 
to the adjacent twigs, while others we have 
picked up from the ground are ready to fall to 
pieces. One nest we discovered had some tiny 

* Mrs. Bonsall furnishes here material enough for home nature-study for a family for several years. Every one of 
these observations is accessible to a mother who will keep her eyes open. Indeed, those that Mrs. Bonsall has taken with 
her two little children were all made in and about a suburban home near a large city. 

The criticism was made of this series by one of our associate editors that many of these studies were imposed upon 
these children rather than suggested spontaneously by them. Perhaps the point is well taken, for Mrs. Bonsall, before and 
even since her marriage, has carried on extensive biological studies in a university: but if this enables her to qualify as 
an expert, then the rest of us have the advantage of her wisdom. Certainly it is better to impose a hobby of our own 
upon our children, especially if it is so valuable a one as this, rather than to let their minds grow entirely unwatched 
and untended. I am fortunate in an intimate acquaintance with Betty and Ann, and I_ have no hesitation in saying 
that, whether imposed or not. the nature-enthusiasm has already "caught on" with these little children. .\s I have fol- 
lowed Betty about through her garden, visited with her the family bird-houses, and studied the bird-pictures on Betty's 
walls. I have wished that all children might have a mother so enthusiastic, so faithful, and so assiduous in her love of 
Nature.— H'. B. F. 



Fall 

This is the time when nearly all of our Nature 
friends are making their preparations for Win- 
ter, and the woods and fields are full of interest. 
Think of the changes that Winter brings, and how 
we must have food and means of warmth if we 
are to live till springtime. The children love 
in their little way to help meet these needs. We 
gather the dead wood that breaks from the trees 
and pile it high in the cellar for use in the fire- 
places in the cool autumn evenings. The children 
are so interested that they work like little Tro- 
jans, and take great pride in their accomplish- 
ment. Then we collect a few nuts, and wild 
grapes for jelly, so that the little folks feel that 
they are helping with the food, too. And I think 
it gives them a more sympathetic feeling for the 
animals as they lay up their stores or hunt out 
some snug little hole where they can keep warm. 

The Leaves 

Ordinarily T do not think that we consider the 
leaves as doing any work, but in reality they 
have been very busy all Summer making food for 
the tree and forming next year's buds. And now 
they send their nourishment back into the twigs 
and branches. Long before the leaves fall you 
can see the baby buds, wrapped away so care- 
fully with their little scaly coats and sometimes 



392 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



little bones in it, and we wished that we could 
have fed the little birds ourselves, if anything 
had happened to their parents. Bird-houses may 
now be opened and their contents removed. How 
neatly the little wrens have kept their home ! 
There was a small crack at the back of one of 
our boxes, and the birds had carefully padded 
leaves against it till it was waterproof. Another 
box was tilted forward a little, and the birds had 
painstakingly filled it up level. 

The Garden 

Although we had carefully weeded our garden 
before leaving for our vacation, the grass was 
high in it when we returned. Probably our beets 
and carrots were not so big as they otherwise 
would have been, but they were fair-sized, and 
King Midas himself, when he first received the 
gift of the golden touch, could not have been 
more delighted than were my children when they 
pulled their own golden carrots from the ground 
and had them creamed for lunch ! And then 
Betty was convinced of the wisdom of having 
thinned them last spring, for in a few places 
several of them had been left together, and were 
consequently small, while the ones off by them- 
selves were much larger. 

Indoor Plants 

We have a plant-shelf in our hall window up- 
stairs which the children keep filled with their 
very own things. It is a queer and not altogether 
artistic collection that we have, but it is our very 
own, and we prize it more than anything that 
we could buy. Our ferns we dig from the woods. 
It is hard to place them evenly in the pot, for it 
seems as if the largest ones persist in going to 
one side instead of staying in the middle. But 
then they are growing finely and there are lots 
of little new fronds coming up, and we eagerly 
watch their little rolled heads uncoil so beauti- 
fully. 

Then we -have slips of ivy which we keep in 
water till the roots grow enough so that we can 
plant them. It seems very strange to the chil- 
dren that we can cut a little piece from the plant 
and have it form a whole new one, but the hardy 
way in which the ivy grows shows that it was 
intended to have that sort of treatment. I have 
found ivy one of the most satisfactory plants for 
children, for it grows so quickly and is so hardy. 
It is easy to measure its growth as it twines up a 
stick. While it has no flowers, the leaves are 
smooth and glossy, and the children love them 
nearly as much as flowers. 

Seeds of all sorts may 'be planted. Orange, 
grape-fruit, and lemon seeds grow into beautiful 



little plants, but so slowly that it takes a great 
deal of patience to wait for thcni. 

The Wind 

This is the best season for observing the wind, 
except possibly in March., Let your child make 
a weather-vane himself by taking a hatpin and 
punching it through a cardboard arrow so that 
it swings easily. It will take a little experiment- 
ing to get it just right. He will discover that 
the arrow points in the direction from which the 
wind is coming. Teach the terms North, South, 
East, and West and also that between north and 




east is northeast, and so forth. If the pin is 
placed in a cardboard circle upon which are 
marked the various points, it will make it easier 
to see just in what direction the wind is blowing. 

The Animals 

We have not been very fortunate in discover- 
ing animals hiding in their winter quarters, with 
the e.xception of cocoons and spiders. But one 
day late in the Autumn when raking the leaves we 
uncovered a very fat toad which had hidden 
away for the Winter. He was so sleepy that he 
paid no attention to uS. so we put him back into 
his hole and covered him up again. 

Winter 

Perhaps it seems as though Winter were not 
a good time to start in to become acquainted with 
Mother Nature, for everything outside appears 
to be dead, or at least asleep, and it is impossible 
for children to be out of doors all day long, as 
in the summertime. But in many ways it is the 
best time to begin to know her. There is not 
the confusion and wealth of beauty crowding in 
upon all sides as in the Summer, and one by one 
the trees, birds, and flowers can be watched as 
they change their form or make their appearance, 
and each one can become a real friend. Then, 
too, on stormy days and in the evenings children 
love to look at nature pictures and colored plates, 
like those in the Boys and Girls Bookshelf, 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



393 



learning many of the names, so that later it is 
much easier to identify them. 

Trees 

The trees are always with us. Birds and 
animals come and go, and the flowers have their 
seasons, but the trees are among our most faith- 
ful friends. And to recognize a tree in the win- 
tertime, without leaves, flowers, or fruit, is to 
know it indeed. 

Shape. — At this time the shape of a tree is 
one of its most conspicuous features. How 
straight are the poplars and evergreens, with 
their branches tapering to a point at the top ! 
And the willows leaning, with their branches 
drooping, are often broader at the top than at 
the bottom. And the gnarled oak spreads its 
mighty branches, twisting and turning in all direc- 
tions. Sometimes trees do not have a fair chance 
to grow as they should, and have to change their 
shape accordingly. We know of a tree growing 
against a rock which has flattened out where it 
is in contact with the rock. Another small tree 
in our own yard has branches only one side, be- 
cause a larger tree is in its way, and yet it keeps 
right on growing as best it can. If you have a 
chance, notice that the trees in a thickly wooded 
place are straight and tall, and then, when one 
has plenty of room, how beautifully and evenly 
it develops ! Little sketches of trees can be made 
on winter walks, or less preferably from the 
window, to be colored later and bound into a 
tree-book. 

Bark. — In Winter, too, we study the bark, not- 
ing how it protects the parts underneath from colJ 
and injury. How rough it is on the chestnuts, 
how smooth on the beeches, and how easily it 
peels off the birches and cherry ! Of course, we 
never take off large pieces, for fear of injuring 
the trees. Then we note the difference between 
the bark of young trees and older trees of the 
same kind. It seems too bad that the older trees 
have to wear such tattered garb — their over- 
coats are in shreds in places ! Later in the season 
we watched the gum come through the bark of 
the cherrj' and spruce trees. 

Age. — If a freshly cut stump is available it 
will show how the bark protects the tree, and 
the little fingers will enjoy counting the rings 
of growth — one for each year — to see how old 
the tree is. A moderate-sized tree we found 
was sixty-four years old, and many trees live 
to be over one hundred years. 

Evergreens. — Naturally, in Winter the ever- 
green trees are our favorites. How glad we are 
to see the deep green of their branches and to 
smell their fragrance ! Every child should know 



and love the pine with its long needles, the spruce 
with shorter needles, and the cedars with flat 
branching leaves. Of these the pine needles may 
be strung into necklaces and chains by carefully 
pulling out one needle of the pair, and tucking 
the point of the other end in the vacant socket. 
Twigs. — Cut twigs from as many different 
kinds of trees as you can and put them in water 
by a sunny window, watching the new buds 
come out.* The horse-chestnut with its sticky 
bud. made so carefully to keep out the water; the 
tulip tree with its beautiful smooth leaves, and 
the peach with the lovely pink blossoms coming 
out before the leaves, should surely be among 
those collected. Notice, too, if there are any 
leaf-scars from previous years on the twigs. 
These show how much the tree has grown during 
the year. 

Birds 

If you live in a suburb or near a park you will 
be surprised to find how many different kinds 
of birds are in your neighborhood all Winter. 
This year in January we saw ten different birds 
and in February six, and many of these were 
unlike the ones we saw in the same months last 
year. And that is the interesting feature about 
watching birds. Except for the most common 
ones, you never know which you are going to 
see, and often you have a real surprise. 

On the first of January each year we start a 
border around Betty's room of pictures of birds 
which she has seen, putting them up one by one 
by means of clips on the picture molding. "The 
Mulford Bird Pictures" are the ones we used 
but if the pictures from the Bookshelf (vol. 
VIII) are traced and colored carefully an added 
interest is given. Of course we always start off 
the first day with the English sparrow, and usu- 
ally we can add the junco, with his slaty back 
and white feathers at the side of his tail. Then 
we saw a flock of chickadees with their little 
black caps, and heard their cheery voices as they 
hung upside down to get insects from under 
sides of twigs. Next came the nuthatch, going 
down a tree head first, and uttering his queer 
little "yank, yank." 

Every time we see a bird we try to notice every- 
thing we can about him — his plumage, his song, 
how he flies, whether he walks or hops, what 
he eats, whether he is shy or friendly, whether 
he likes to go in flocks or by himself, and whether 
he stays with us all the time and whether he likes 
cold or warm weather. 

The winter birds were mostly rather somber 

* If the end is cut off each day, buds and blossoms may 
come in the house long before they appear out of doors. 



394 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL, 



in color, till one day we saw a cardinal (our 
eighth bird), and how glad we were to be able 
to add his picture, with his brilliant plumage, to 
our gallery. This year, too, we were very for- 
tunate in seeing a hawk hovering over a meadow, 
poising over one s-pot, keeping his position by 
flapping his wings and suddenly swooping down 
to carry off his prey. Another time we saw a 
pair of kinglets, tiny little birds with an exquisite 
song, who were flitting constantly from one 
branch to another, brimful of energy. 

Stormy days afford a splendid chance for mak- 
ing bird-houses. The little wren seems to be the 
easiest bird to attract in the region around Phila- 
delphia. This year he occupied our bluebird and 
robin houses as well as his own. The house need 
not be large, and a circular opening an inch wide 
allows the wren to enter easily, and also keeps 
out the English sparrow and other troublesome 
visitors. The houses should be put up facing the 
south and not too close together. If the top is 
made with a hinge, it can easily be cleaned each 
year and used again and again. 

Stars 

No friends are more faithful than the stars, 
for they follow us on land and sea wherever we 
may go. Only daylight and stormy weather hide 
them from us, and even then we are sure that 
they are there. We know that as long as we live 
they will remain unchanged, so that a little time 
spent in getting acquainted with the stars is well 
worth while, for i-t will be a constant pleasure 
afterwards. 

There is no time that the stars are more 
brilliant than in Winter, and it is dark early 
enough for even the four- and five-year-olds to 
stay up and see them. When it begins to grow 
dark Betty and I watch to see who will discover 
the first star and where it appears. One by one 
as they appear I tell her the names of the in- 
dividual stars, and before long she is able to tell 
them herself. 

Together we look over the star maps and try to 
learn the most prominent stars and constellations, 
or groups of stars. The Great Dipper forms the 
best starting-point, as it is familiar to nearly every- 
one and is seen all during the year in the north. 

Did you know that what appears at first to 
be a single star, next to the end of the handle of 
the Dipper, is in reality two stars apparently 
near together? See if you can distinguish them 
when it is dark and clear. The Indians call these 
stars the little papoose on the mother's back, 
and it is considered a test of line eyesight to dis- 
tinguish them. 

Following along, almost in line with the two 



stars of the Dipper, farthest from the handle, is 
the Pole Star, which is almost above our North 
Pole and keeps nearly in the same place all the 
time. 

Following the two stars making the rim of the 
Dipper, we come very close to a beautiful star, 
Capella, meaning a little she-goat. Early in the 
winter evening it is to be seen high up toward 
the northeast. Betty loves to think that the 
beautiful yellow star is sometimes called the twin 
star to our own sun, which is really a star too, 
but is so very much nearer to us than the others 
that it seems larger. 

On the other side of the Pole Star from the 
Dipper is a queer-looking constellation made up 
of several groups like an M or W, depending 
on its position in the sky. This is Cassiopeia, 
or the Chair of Cassiopeia (an Ethiopian queen) 
as it is sometimes called. Early in the Winter 
evenings it may be seen almost overhead. 

On the west and almost sinking below the 
horizon are three very bright stars forming a 
large triangle — Vega, the falling eagle ; Deneb, 
the tail, and Altair, the bird. Deneb is at the 
head of a group of stars forming a sort of cross. 
Altair is the middle star of three in a row, and 
Vega is the one that sets first in the west. 

The Milky Way with its host of stars stretches 
overhead, and we like to pretend, as did little 
Hiawatha, that we see "the broad white path in 
Heaven, crowded with ghosts — the shadows." 

In February, looking toward the south, appear 
the -most beautiful stars: Orion, the mighty 
hunter, attended by his two dogs, com'bating the 
Bull with the red eye, who is sheltering the 
Seven Sisters, crowded together behind him. 
These form the most imposing spectacle in the 
whole sky. The giant Orron is our favorite con- 
stellation. We love to look at the three bright 
stars in a row forming his belt, with the fainter 
stars forming his sword. Sirius, the big dog, 
to his left, is the brightest star in the whole sky 
and is easy to discover on that account. A little 
farther to the east and north comes the little dog 
star, Procyon, in reality a magnificent star, but 
quite overshadowed by Sirius. Toward the west 
of Orion is the beautiful red star, Aldebaran, 
the eye of the Bull who is attacking Orion, and 
just a little farther to the west is the faint little 
group of stars called the Seven Sisters, or the 
Pleiades. 

These are merely a few of the stars and con- 
stellations that every child could easily learn. 
Every pleasant winter evening before supper we 
watch the stars come out one by one, and then 
after supper, when Betty is ready for bed, I carry 
her around from window to window to see our 




BETTY'S NATURE FRIENDS 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



395 



friends in all their glory as they shine out in 
the black sky. We gaze in silence and wonder 
at their beauty, and with this peaceful scene to 
conclude the day my little girl drops quietly off 
to sleep. 

The moon and the planets also are interesting, 
because they keep changing their position among 
the stars. Unlike the stars or suns which twinkle, 
the planets shine with a steady light. Venus is 
the brightest of these, sometimes visible in full 
daylight, and Jupiter is the largest. We never 
find Venus except in the east or west, while 
Jupiter is found in the south as well. Saturn is 
much fainter than the other two, and Mars may 
be distinguished by its reddish color. The other 
planets are less easily located. 

The moon moves so rapidly that even children 
can see the change — one night below a star, the 
next above it — and are enthusiastic about watch- 
ing it. Where do you look for the new moon ? 
Which way is the crescent facing? Does it al- 
ways face the same way ? How long does it 
take the crescent to become a half moon? a whole 
moon? Is there ever no moon in the sky? Why 
do you suppose the moon changes its shape ? 
Children of five can hardly understand a full 
explanation of how the light of the moon is 
simply reflected from the sun, but they will 
enjoy the many legends about the shape of the 
moon, how it was supposed to be eaten every 
month, or how it is a sorrowful woman drawing 
a veil over her face — legends which had to satisfy 
men for ages. Does the moon give us heat ? 
What are the markings on the moon? Here 
again there are many legends, but if your child 
really wants to know what they are you can tell 
him the wonderful true story, that they are 
enormously high mountains, much higher than 
those on the earth, and great plains, perhaps the 
bottoms of former great seas. Once there may 
have been living things on the moon, but not now. 
for everything is cold and we can discover no 
air or water there. 

On rainy days we sometimes copy the strange 
signs that have been used for ages to tell the 
location of the sun every month. These signs 
are to be found in the Bookshelf (vol. IV, 
pages 268-279), in the upper left-hand corner of 
"A Year with Dolly," and we have included them 
in the little monthly calenda-r we keep. Leo, repre- 
sented by the lion's ta>il, and Taurus by the horns 
of the Bull, are Betty's favorites. 

Rocks 

On winter walks we bring home any interesting 
or pretty pebbles that we come -across to put in 
our mineral collection. Perhaps you think that 

K.N.— 27 



all the stones are alike in your neighborhood, but 
unless you live in a most unusual place you will 
be astonished at the variety you -will find. In 
the first place, notice where the rock came from: 
did it come from a near-by cliff, or was it carried 
by a stream or river? Has it rough edges or 
smooth? How do you suppose it came to be the 
shape it is? The hard white quartzi-te pebbles 
and those containing mica are generally the easi- 
est to find and recognize. Note how hard the 
quartz is, how difficult it is to scratch, but how 
it can make a scratch on almost any other rock. 
Perhaps you will find a calcite pebble, in appear- 
ance very much like the quartz, but much softer 
and more easily scratched. See if you can find 
both the white mica (muscovite) and the black 
mica (biotite). 

How do you think rocks are made ? It is easy 
to see that many are being broken up all the 
time into small pieces and finally becoming sand 
or crumbling into earth; but it is not so easy 
generally to see the formation of new rocks. 
If you find a piece of slate or s'hale, you can 
think of it as part of a mud flat long ago that 
has become hardened. Sometimes in these rocks 
we find fossils. The sandstone was a sandy beach 
which was buried deep and hardened. There 
are also the crystalline rocks — granite, once 
molten rock, which solidified slowly deep down 
in the earth, and which contains large crystals. 

Prol)a:bly you will find pebbles with quartz or 
calcite veins running through them, or if you are 
fortunate, some dark reddish garnets or some 
iron pyrite crystals. Above all, do not be dis- 
couraged if you do not know what kind of a 
rock you have. I have heard learned professors 
discussing at length as to the name of a very 
plain little piece of rock. 

Pebbles containing mica are fascinating to 
children. The white mica (muscovite) is the 
commonest, next comes the* black, or biotite. 
Both micas are found in flat, six-sided forms, 
and are soft, being easily scratched. Children 
love to pull the mica apart into fine layers, but 
the thinnest leaf we can make still contains many 
more layers. This feature of splitting into layers 
is called cleavage. 

Fragments of granite are also plentiful in most 
localities. It is used so much for building that 
pieces of it can be easily procured if it is not 
to be found in the ground naturally. This rock 
differs from the quartz pebbles in being com- 
posed of several minerals, the crystals of which 
may be clearly seen. The glassy mineral is quartz, 
and feldspar is the one which gives the dis- 
tinctive color — pink, gray, or white. Usually 
there is a little mica present, and sometimes horn- 



396 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



blende, a dark mineral in needle-shaped crystals. 
Because of the large crystals, we know that 
granite was long, long ago a very hot molten 
mass, cooling slowly, deep down in the earth. 
So whenever we pick up a bit of granite we 
think how very old it must be, for all the earth 
on top of it must have been worn away before 
it could be brought to light. 

Another common rock is gneiss (pronounced 
like "nice"). It resembles granite in being made 
up of feldspar, quartz, and mica, but contains 
more mica than granite, and is arranged slightly 
in layers. It is less valuable for building, as it 
is likely to split along the layers. 

Probably your children will find some mica 
schist. This contains a much greater amount of 
mica than the gneiss, and consequently is of little 
value for building. Betty has found mica schist 
so soft that it would easily crumble to pieces in 
her hands. 

The porphyries are interesting rocks. The 
basis of the rock is fine-grained substance contain- 
ing large crystals which stand out distinctly. It 
may be of different colors, but the famous Roman 
porphyry was a reddish purple with crystals of 
white feldspar. 

All of the rocks mentioned previously are made 
up of individual crystals, and are called igneous 
rocks. There is another important group of 
rocks, made up of small fragments of other rocks, 
which have settled under water and are called 
sedimentary rocks. 

Sandstone is a rough, hard, gritty stone, in 
which frequently the grains of sand may be 
clearly seen. The brown and red sandstones 
generally contain a little iron, which gives them 
their color. This rock must once have been a 
sandy beach. 

Slates and shales are easy to obtain, the most 
striking difference between them being that the 
slate cleaves into narrow layers, and is therefore 
used for roofing, while the shale breaks irregu- 
larly. If you breathe upon them it is easy to 
recognize the strong odor of clay. This rock 
must have been part of a mud flat or deep-sea 
deposit long ages ago, becoming covered deeper 
and deeper till it finally solidified. 

Limestone is not uncommon, especially in the 
form of marble. It is a soft rock, easily scratched 
with a knife, and a little crumb put in strong 
vinegar will make a fizzing sound. It may be 
in color, red, blue, white, black, or yellow, and 
was probably formed under water from pieces 
of shell compressed together, or from coral 
deposits. 

A piece of coal may be included among the 
specimens, and the story told of how long ago 



immense forests became covered with water and 
buried deep under sand and mud till the trunks 
and leaves of the trees were compressed into coal, 
which we dig from deep in the earth. 

To complete the collection, you ought to have 
a piece of conglomerate, or pudding-stone. As 
the name implies, it is made up of a conglomer- 
ation of pebbles held in place by sand, which 
forms a natural cement. It is easy to imagine 
that this must once have been the rocky coast 
of a lake or ocean. There is a legend that this 
rock was once a Giant's pudding, but it was 
turned into stone, the pebbles being plums. Read 
"The Dorchester Giant," among the early poems 
of Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

If possible, try to collect all of the rocks named 
above and as many more of interest as you can 
find. If you are able to, get fair-sized specimens, 
at least large enough to bear a small label giving 
the place where it was found and its name as 
well. Probably you will find some pebbles with 
quartz veins running through them, and some 
with little holes where a mineral weathered out. 

Sermons in Stones 

Once Betty and I had to wait nearly an hour 
in a little city vestibule during a rainstorm, so 
we amused ourselves by trying to see how many 
different kinds of rock we could locate near us. 
The vestibule was marble, and the outside of the 
building was granite, in which we could distin- 
guish the various crystals. Near-by was a build- 
ing of gneiss and another of sandstone, with a 
slate roof. The others were more distant but we 
tried to make intelligent guesses as to what they 
were, and in this way the time passed very 
quickly. 

Spring 

And now comes the beautiful weather when 
we are out of doors all day long, and there is 
more than enough to keep our eyes, ears, and 
hands busy. Everything is awaking from its 
long winter's sleep ; the migrating birds begin to 
arrive, the insects and reptiles come forth from 
their winter quarters, and out of the ground 
spring up the most marvelous things. 

Gardening 

The digging fever is strong now, so start in 
with the gardens. Do not begin with too big a 
one, for in my experience several small ones, 
well kept, are preferable. Betty has no less than 
four — a little strip against the house in front for 
garden flowers; another strip at the side for wild- 
flowers; a shady corner at the back for ferns 
and jack-in-the-pulpits, and a little sunny bed for 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



397 



vegetables. These gardens Betty has managed 
entirely herself, except for the original breaking 
of the ground and the transplanting of some rare 
specimens from the woods. 

The vegetable garden Betty started first. We 
measured off a little rectangle 3x5 feet, which 



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BETTY'S GARDEN 

was large enough for a little path in the middle 
and easy to weed and water. As we are away 
in the middle of the Summer, we are limited in 
our choice of seeds. But we finally decided upon 
peas, lettuce, and radishes for early use, and car- 
rots and beets to last over until we returned from 
our vacation. Betty watched me crumble the 
earth in my garden and helped me put in stakes 
on opposite sides, joining them with a string, and 
then she did the same in hers all by herself. We 
had some difficulty at first in keeping the baby 
away from the garden, for she was as much inter- 
ested as Betty, but by giving her a corner of her 
own and a trowel she was perfectly contented, 
putting the seeds in first and digging and raking 
it afterwards. 

Every day we watered the garden carefully and 
eagerly watched for the first signs of green above 
ground and noticed the different appearance of 
the sprouting seed. It was a hard day when we 
started to thin out the little plants, for it broke 
Betty's heart to throw away any of them. But 
she realized that they could not all grow in the 
garden together, and when we decided to give the 
little plants pulled up to some chickens to eat, 
it helped matters considerably. One morning was 
happily spent in gathering stakes to support the 
peas, and we were delighted when we found that 
the tendrils actually clung to them. It was a red- 
letter day when the lettuce was large enough 
to eat, and Betty's eyes fairly danced when it 
appeared on the table. 

Our Wild Flower Garden 

Along the side border of our yard we have an 
ideal place for planting wildflowers, as there is 
both sun and shade there. We have had unusual 



success in transplanting, and I think it is because 
we have taken up plenty of earth around the 
roots and have placed them in the ground within 
an hour or so, trying to reproduce the natural 
conditions. We have hepatica, bloodroot, spring 
beauty, bellwort, amaryllis, blue-grass, star of 
Bethlehem, mint, Solomon's seal, spikenard, and 
violets of various kinds. Some of them have 
come up year after year. In this way we can 
study the plants in all their stages, watching their 
seeds and changes in growth. It seems much 
more worth while to me to come back from ram- 
bles in the woods with a few flowers to transplant 
and watch day by day afterwards than loaded 
down with wildflowers, only a few of which can 
be used, and these wither within a few hours. 
These flowers may be identified by the articles 
and pictures in vol. VII of the Bookshelf. 

We love to watch the way the different plants 
push their way out of the ground. The skunk 
cabbage pierces the ground with a sharp point. 

A ^ JL 



The beans make a little loop, which straightens 
out after it is well out of the ground. The ferns 
are rolled into a little ball when they first appear, 
and the May apple seems actually like a little 
umbrella. 

Soil 

While digging in the garden, stop for a few 
moments to look at the soil. Dump a spadeful 
upon a newspaper and let your child look it over 
to see what it contains. He will easily find some 
gravel, and let him make a little pile of it. Take 
a spoonful of what is left, and see what is next 
in size. It is not so easy to remove the sand, but 
perhaps you can secure a few grains and feel how 
hard and gritty it is. Breathe upon a small quan- 
tity of the remaining soil, and you will be able to 
detect the odor of clay. Besides these you will 
probably find rootlets, seeds, and little white eggs. 
Where do you suppose all these things came 
from? If you can find a piece of rock which is 
crumbling to pieces perhaps it will give you a 
clue. If you find mica in the rock, and mica in 
the soil near by. it is easy to imagine that the 
mica might have come from the rock. And sand 
is nothing but quartz broken into small grains. 
Feldspar breaks up in time, forming clay. The 
little rootlets and leaves when they decompose 
form the dark rich carbon matter in the soil. 
And so much of the earth in our gardens was 
long ago hard, solid rock ! But trickling water, 



398 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Jack Frost, and even the air have slowly been 
working to break it up into soil. 

Bird-Study 

Now is the time when bird-study is the most 
exciting. Get up early in the morning and you 
will see new birds nearly every day. Remember 
that the birds are going to help with your garden 
by eating injurious insects. As their plumage is 
most brilliant at this time and they are exuber- 
ant in song, it is easier to identify them than at 
any other season. 

We had a splendid opportunity this year to 
watch a pair of robins. They came together and 
looked over one of our pear trees close by the 
house for several days before deciding to build 
in it. We imagined that they were looking to 
see if we had a cat, and if there was water near 
by and a good food-supply. Finally they started 
to build, and in two days they finished the nest. 
Betty hung some strings on a branch near by, 
hoping that they would use them in building. But 
the robins paid no attention to them. However, 
a pair of cedar waxwings came very soon and 
carried off every piece of string which we had 
put out. It was a charming sight to see how 
carefully the cedar birds wound the strings 
around their little bills to leave no ends dragging. 
But to return to our robins: the father bird 
watched faithfully while the mother bird .sat on 
her nest. When she flew off for a few minutes 
he would frequently come and peer over the edge 
of the nest at the eggs till the mother bird hurried 
back again. A pair of cat-birds, that came to 
our tree with apparently harmless intentions, were 
promptly driven off by father robin, who was 
taking no chances with quarrelsome neighl)ors. 

After we saw our first wren we kept watching 
our bird-house to see whether it would be occu- 
pied. And what an exciting day it was for both 
the wrens and ourselves when a pair of these 
little birds discovered it and kept hopping in and 
out. How delighted we were when we found 
that they had pieces of grass in their mouths and 
were actually building their home ! And did you 
know that a wren can sing with grass in his 
mouth? While Mrs. Wren was staying inside 
of the house keeping the eggs warm, Mr. Wren 
would sing to her from a neighboring twig, and 
every once in a while she would look out the little 
door as if to encourage him. 

Make a note of when the different birds are 
seen and what they are doing. How many differ- 
ent kinds of birds there are ! In our own neigh- 
borhood Betty saw over forty different kinds of 
birds before Summer, and I saw many more. 

The woodpeckers are easy to distinguish, for 



they are never seen on the ground — except the 
flickers — and are always upright on the trees, sup- 
porting themselves by their tails. Their bills are 
long, and they are often seen tapping and ham- 
mering away. We were fortunate enough this 
Spring to see the downy, the hairy, the red- 
headed, and the flicker. 

The chimney-swifts go racing by in tireless 
flight, high overhead, uttering their almost con- 
stant twittering, and we wonder how they can 
get enough to eat when they are constantly on 
the wing. 

The fly-catchers, which include the pewee and 
the phoebe, generally sit motionless for a long 
time on a conspicuous perch, then suddenly fly 
in a circle, coming back to their resting-places 
again. 

Then there are the little wrens, tiny birds with 
long, slender beaks, full of life and constantly 
bobbing their tails saucily into the air. 

The cat-bird is the only mocking-bird of the 
Northern States, but he is well worth watching. 
He is just as much interested in you as you are 
in him, and he peers at you from imder the cover 
of near-by leaves. His catlike call deceives many 
a child, and it seems quite astonishing that he 
has a beautiful song besides. 

The birds of prey, such as the hawks and buz- 
zards, are particularly interesting to watch, espe- 
cially if they are poising high in the air or 
swooping down upon their prey. 

In addition to these there are many others^ — • 
the blackbirds, the jays, the grosbeaks, the spar- 
rows, thrushes, and warblers, to say nothing of 
the swimming birds, as the ducks; and the waders, 
the herons, and others. There are so many birds 
that there is no danger of seeing them all in one 
season. (In your bird-study, use the descriptions 
and color-pictures in Vol. VIII of the Boys and 
Girls Bookshelf.) 

The Trees 

If you have been in doubt of the name of any 
of your tree friends during the Winter, now that 
the leaves are appearing you will have additional 
help. Watch carefully to see the flowers. A 
friend of mine once asked, "Do trees have flow- 
ers?" Of course the peach, horse-chestnut and 
magnolia blossoms are familiar. But how many 
persons know the flower of the maple, the oak, 
and the birch? Collect as many different kinds 
of leaves as you can and trace their outlines in 
color and bind into a book on rainy days. Get 
some with a smooth edge, some saw-toothed, some 
rounded at the top and some pointed, some jagged 
like the maple, some in which the incisions reach 
all the way to the stem, like the horse-chestnut. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



399 



Notice the veins, wliethcr they are parallel or 
feather-veined. 

Have you ever noticed that certain trees have 





LEAF-FOKMS 



different kinds of leaves on the same branch? 
The sassafras tree has three kinds of leaves, 
which resemble a sock, a mitten, and a glove. 




LEAVES OF THE SASSAFRAS 

And the mulberry tree has an even greater 
variety. Betty has enjoyed greatly making blue- 
prints of them. 

Ani)nals 

As we are only eight miles from Philadelphia 
we do not expect to find many wild animals in 
our neighborhood, so it is an unusual treat when 
we discover any. Early in the Spring we noticed 
a mole-track across the yard. We followed it in 
all its turns and twists, but were unable to dis- 
cover the little fellow. One beautiful day, when 
we were walking through a little woody stretch 
beside the creek, a woodchuck hurried across our 
path and darted under some rocks. When trying 
to get some duck-weed from a little stream for 
our aquarium, we saw a water-rat glide under 
some roots, and we caught a small turtle, which 
we took home with us. We made a little rock 
house for him in a shady corner of our garden, 
and gave him little pieces of meat to eat, but he 
deserted us in a day or two. However, he was 
with us long enough for the children to see him 
withdraw into his shell and come out again many 
times, and to note how awkwardly he walked. 

Every year we collect specimens for our large 
glass globe, which we call our "aquarium." We 
always have tadpoles, and this year we added a 



little minnow which Betty herself caught in a 
sieve, after trying for a long time. Then there 
were a couple of shell-less snails and a couple of 
land-snails, which we found on a fern one day 
and placed on a rock with some ferns in the 
middle of our globe. To our surprise these land- 
snails began to swim, shell and all, across the 
water and climb up the side of the globe, so 
that we had to put a netting over the top. We 
had a splendid chance to watch how they length- 
ened and contracted their bodies, and also to see 
the eyes on the ends of their feelers, or anten- 
nae. For a few days we had some special ex- 
citement, when we caught some water-beetles and 
put them in our globe, for they raced back and 
forth over the surface of the water, not seeming 
to care how hard they bumped into the sides of 
the globe ; but for the most part the creatures in 
our aquarium seemed to lead a very peaceful life, 
paying little attention to one another. 

Quite frequently we have seen a pair of cot- 
ton-tail rabbits come into our garden and nibble 
our lettuce. They were so beautiful that we 
never had the heart to drive them away, but used 
to watch them from a hiding-place. One time, 
when they were frisking around, a dog suddenly 
ran by, whereupon they immediately became as 
still as statues till the dog was well on his way. 

While it is more exciting to study animals in 
their natural surroundings, we had so little op- 
portunity for doing so that we had to be content 
with watching tame animals, pets, and farm ani- 
mals. We have tried to notice their teeth and 
feet particularly — how they resemble each other 
and how they differ ; which had cloven hoofs and 
which not; how cats and dogs differ, especially 
their paws, eyes, and whiskers, and which makes 
the more noise in walking; which can run faster, 
which longer. We study the Bookshelf plates 
(volume VIII) to learn the different kinds of 
dogs, and try to identify every one we see. Usu- 
ally the owners know what kind of dogs they 
have, so we have the satisfaction of knowing 
by asking if we have guessed correctly, which 
was not always the case with trees and birds. 

Summer 

During the long hot days there is plenty of 
opportunity for first-hand study of the forms of 
outdoor life around us. Try to know your own 
community thoroughly. See if you and your chil- 
dren can make friends with every tree, flower, 
and bird in your neighborhood. A friend of mine 
once told me of the wonderful birds and flowers 
that she had seen on her vacation, and until I 
convinced her she wouldn't believe that many of 
them flourished right near her home. So learn 



4Q0 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



with your children all that you can of your sur- 
roundings, and you will be all the more able to 
enjoy traveling later. 

T]ic Sun 

The center of attention on hot days is the sun ; 
in fact, the plans for the whole day frequently 
are made with the understanding that if it is too 
hot they will be changed. How long the days 
are ! Notice where the sun comes up and sets, 
and compare with wintertime. How short our 
shadows are at noon ! Children enjoy making a 
sort of crude sun-dial for themselves by sticking 
a pin upright in a piece of cardboard, placing it 
in the open, and drawing the shadow every hour 
or so. Where the shadow is the shortest marks 
the noon, and the direction in which it is pointing 
is the north. If you have a thermometer, your 
child will enjoy watching how the mercury rises 
and falls each day, going higher the hotter it is. 
Tell all the myths and legends you know about 
the sun, and also, if questions are asked, give the 
scientific answers as far as possible. What is the 
sun made of? How far away is it? How big 
is it? These are common questions with chil- 
dren, and while dry facts as answers mean very 
little to a child, if you show a tennis ball and a 
pin and say that the earth would be the size of 
a pin-head if the sun were the ball, the child gets 
some little idea of the enormous size of the sun ; 
and if you place them about twenty-eight feet 
apart, you will get their relative distances. Betty 
loves to look at pictures of the sun, showing the 
spots and flaming projections. 

Insects 

The fields and meadows are fairly teeming with 
life. The hotter it is the harder the insects seem 
to be working. Just watch the bees as they go 
from one flower to another, gathering pollen and 
nectar. They do not seem to mind the heat at 
all. The flowers are glad to have the bees visit 
them, for the bees help them in forming their 
own seeds, so they shower them with pollen. 
Notice how the different flowers try to attract the 
bees by their bright colors or delicious odor. 
And some of them, like the butter-and-eggs, even 
have a cushion for the bee to sit on ! 

There are always countless grasshoppers and 
crickets, which are so easy to catch that even my 
little two-year-old Ann can furnish plenty of 
specimens for us. Notice the long pair of an- 
tennae which Mr. Grasshopper uses for feeling, 
and perhaps for smelling. How many legs has 
he, and how does he use them in walking about ? 
Watch how he jumps: he braces himself with 
the front pair, and pushing with the long pair in 



back, he can leap high into the air. What queer 
e^-es he has — a pair of big ones on each side of 
his head and three small ones in the middle of 
his forehead. And yet with all these eyes poor 
Mr. Grasshopper can see only a few feet away ! 

As Autumn approaches, more and more butter- 
flies and moths appear. They can generally be 
distinguished without difiiculty, for butterflies 
have slender antennae with little knobs at the 
ends, while the moths do not have the knobs, and 
sometimes the antennae resemble feathers. 

The beautiful dragonflies or darning-needles 
the children love to watch. We have noticed their 
fondness for being near the water, but did not 
know till recently that the reason is because of 
their food, — the mosquito. So now we like them 
more than ever, and feel that they are our par- 
ticular friends, as we watch them steer in and 
out of the cat-tails with their long, slender abdo- 
mens. Perhaps you have seen one bursting his 
skin. Many insects, when they grow, split their 
skins along the back and shed them. The cast- 
off skin of the cicada, or harvest-fly, is very 
common, and if you have a good specimen it is 
easy to see the different parts of the outer cov- 
ering. 

Flowers 

There is no scarcity of summer flowers. Every- 
where the fields are luxuriant with chicory, gold- 
en-rod, asters, daisies, wild carrot, and thistles. 
These are all tall flowers, for unless a flower grew 
fairly high it would have little chance of receiv- 
ing its share of the sunshine. How fast the 
flowers grow on hot days ! It is said that the 
morning-glory grows so rapidly that the move- 
■ment can actually be seen, as the growing tip 
completes a circle in two hours. While we were 
never quite sure that we could see it grow our- 
selves, we have often marked its height and in a 
few hours have been able to see considerable 
change. 

Birds 

On account of going away in the Summer, we 
have never been fortunate enough to follow a 
pair of birds from the time they started their 
nest till the little ones had flown. We watched 
our robins for nearly three weeks, but the mother 
bird was sitting faithfully upon the eggs when 
we had to leave, and upon our return, two months 
later, there was not a sign of them, except the 
empty nest. Our wrens, too, were disappointingly 
slow. They came early in May, and by the middle 
of June we could hear the baby wrens peeping 
inside their little home, and once in a while when 
I lifted Betty she could see a tiny bill through 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



401 



the opening. We eagerly waited for the day to 
come when their mother would take them out and 
teach them to fly, but the days passed and we left 
without seeing any more of our little friends. 

But one of , our neighbors had a pair of robins 
whose eggs hatched before ours, and we saw the 
mother and father birds gathering worms all day 
long without a moment's rest. The hungry babies 
didn't seem to have a bit of pity for their busy 
parents, but with wide-open mouths kept clam- 
oring for more. 

While we were away we had an unusually good 
opportunity to watch a mother oriole teach her 
babies to fly. They had come from somewhere to 
the vines by our porch, and there they stayed. 
The mother kept flying a little way ahead, but it 
was a long time before the babies would leave 
the vines and follow her. But at last her coaxing 
or threatening was successful, and down they 
went, hopping and flapping their wings. 

It is interesting to see how unlike the parents 
the young birds sometimes are. The little robins 
had spotted breasts, resembling the wood thrushes, 
and the baby orioles were much less brilliant in 
color than their parents. 

One day we heard a great commotion in the 
yard, and hurrying out we saw a pair of cat- 
birds, a flicker, a robin, and numerous sparrows 
all flying around in an excited way, and scream- 
ing so that they paid no attention to us till we 
were close upon them. We surmised that a cat 



had been making trouble, and we were correct, 
for hidden in a near-by thicket was a gray cat, 
preparing to take a nap. Apparently she had 
eaten some baby cat-birds, for the parents in a 
broken-hearted manner kept flying to their empty 
nest and looking in as if they could hardly realize 
what had happened. 

We were surprised to find how the different 
kinds of birds had united against their common 
enemy, the cat. 

Clouds 

When resting under the trees on hot summer 
days we particularly enjoy looking at the clouds. 
How quickly they change their shape and move 
to different parts of the sky! Just think how 
the wind must be blowing up there ! Of course, 
we like to look for all sorts of shapes in them; 
some are like animals and others are like ships, 
and we have real pleasure in watching their 
beauty; but aside from this we try to find out a 
little about them. There are the layer clouds, 
called stratus, generally seen early in the morn- 
ing. Then there are the beautiful fleecy clouds, 
called cumulus, and the lighter, more feathery 
clouds, called cirrus. The heavy low gray rain- 
clouds are called nimbus. Generally the sky is 
composed of a mi.xture, but when starting in to 
learn the types, try to choose a day when it is 
fairly simple to tell which type of cloud is the 
predominant one. 



PLAY WITH NEGLECTED SENSES 



BY 

THE EDITORS 



The part that odors play in the life of a child is 
interesting. In infancy the youngster shows a 
bluntness to bad smells which not only protects 
him from much that is disagreeable, but which 
helps explain why we find it hard to make him 
care about keeping clean. 

But the chief use of the nose to the young is 
in the creation of memories. Alice Meynell 
thinks that it may be because the child is smaller, 
and therefore nearer than we grown-ups to the 
wild and homey scents of the moss, the under- 
growth, and the wildflowers ; that the smells of 
earth mean more to him. His going barefoot 
also may bring the ground more near, because 
he touches it with two senses instead of one. 

Noses Are Gates to Joy 

The nose, the pioneer of the human face, is 
intended to enrich our lives. You would not 



show a child California without its roses. New 
England without its pines, Italy without its 
oranges, or Brittany without its sea air. It is 
possible, we verily believe, so to select a child's 
sense-memories in advance that his manhood's 
associations shall be purely fragrant. He might 
perhaps be spared the staleness of tobacco, the 
pungency of wine, and the fetor of late assem- 
blies. 

In their places we could give him "incense- 
breathing morn," wildflower air, and the smell of 
salt spray and heather. 

It is told of St. Francis that once he "ordered 
a bed of flowers to be laid out, that all who be- 
held them might remember the Eternal Sweet- 
ness." The gentle saint's example might well 
inspire all who have a love for children. 

There is a familiar Greek saying, "Let him that 
hath two loaves sell one and buy flowers of the 



402 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



narcissus, for bread feeds the body only, while 
the narcissus feeds the soul." 

Impressions, as we -know, do not lie in the 
mind like separated valuables in the disconnected 
boxes of a storage vault. They are, rather, like 
beads on William Blake's golden string wound 
into a ball. Start to unwind, and presto, you 
run down the whole string to the very last bead ! 
The best strand on which to string memories is 
human affection! "The purely sensuous pleasures, 
because -of .their" impermanence — a taste, a smell, 
a physical contact — tuilcss accompanied by some 
\\nman on social association," says the author of 
'■Religio Doctoris," "have little or no power of 
(revival." That is, attach to a lovely sight or 
sound or odor the sympathy of an understanding 
friend, and years afterward the sensuous and 
the spiritual memory will survive together. "The 
scent of the roses will cling to it still." It would 
seem, then, that we may consciously and deliber- 
ately, through the thoughtfulness of our affection, 
not only quicken the attention of a child to sense- 
experiences but embalm them in his memory. 
We may patiently and richly store the chambers 
of the soul. 

In .the Woodcraft League there is a deliberate 
effort to lay up happiness. At the initiation 
ceremony they burn red willow and white cedar 
together on the central fire and they say: 

"And because the power of smell to store and 
hold memories is greater than the other senses' 
power, we know that henceforth ye who smell 
this smoke will ever after conjure up pleasant 
thought and reverent mood of this our Council 
Ring." 

Utilizing the Common Odors 

A simple suggestion for developing the sense 
of smell by the use of plants is to endeavor to 
find a source of their odors. Sometimes they 
emanate, as in wallflowers, from the petals; some- 
times from the pollen, as in daisies; from the 
nectar, as in clover: from the leaf, as in mint; 
from the roots, as in primroses. 

Odors are particularly serviceable because they 
are so democratic. The common plants — clove 
pinks, geraniums, herbs — are most delicious, 
while the precious orchid is a flower without a 
soul ; in fact, flower odors are generally evanes- 
cent, while it is the costliest leaf odors that are 
permanent. 

Children should learn to love the humble 
odors: fir cones, toadstool, rocks, and lichen, the 
dry leaves, bonfires, strawberry leaves after the 
frost appears, fresh bread, upturned soil, grass 
freshly cut, the garden after a shower. 

It is important to learn to discriminate among 



odors. If children could learn to do so. teachers 
would be less annoyed later by the extravagant 
use of ten-cent-store perfumes in the schoolroom. 
Nature's flower odors are usually inoffensive. 
Let us revive some of the old-country customs. 
Let little girls wear ladslove, rosemary, or laven- 
der in their bosoms when they go to church on 
stifling summer Sundays. 

Odors in Hospitality 

In New England, silk scent-bags were placed 
on tlie hacks of chairs and potpourris were opened 
when guests entered. Offerings of sweet odors 
are so integral a part of beautiful hospitality that 
they may be used by mothers who wish to instill 
the more gracious part of hospitality. Let us 
teach our little girls how to perfume the bed- 
sheets, make the chairs fragrant by scent-bags, 
gather potpourris, and even mix pomanders or 
fill vinaigrettes. 

"Hospitality -mats," as made in the East, are 
produced by placing bags of lime leaves, orange 
leaves, or lemon grass under the doormats. 

"Hospitality bags" for chairs are made, so says 
Mrs. Earle, in her "Potpourri from a Surrey 
Garden," by placing dried leaves of verbena, 
lavender, and sweet-scented geraniums in silken 
bags. They are put under and behind the 
cushions. 

Odors in Worship and Service 

In a certain household the father brought home 
one day a copper incense-holder that he had 
bought in the Turkish quarter, though it held a 
Christian cross. With it was some dried frank- 
incense. The children were deeply impressed by 
its odor when burned, and seemed to receive a 
religious impression from it. Again, another 
member of the same family was shown in a 
Sunday-school class a bit of medicinal manna, 
such as is sold by some pharmacists. His sus- 
ceptibility to the pilgrimage stories of Israel was 
much deepened. One wonders why greater use 
has not been made of such sense-impressions 
from the Holy Land. We can recall no others 
that have been used except the unsatisfying 
pressed flowers. In the Chapel Royal, St. James's 
Palace, gold, frankincense, and myrrh in silk bags 
are still presented on Twelfth Day. Why not do 
the same in church or Sunday-school ? Then 
there was the "precious ointment" of the New 
Testament, which was a compound of olive oil, 
myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, sweet calamus, etc., 
all common enough ingredients, but never used 
of old in this combination except for sacred 
purposes. Why not let incense and ointments 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



403 



be produced and presented at family worship 
upon high religious holidays, or Good Friday? 
The sense of smell is not only of all the senses 
the most difficult to define, it is also the one 
most impossible to control. We may avoid see- 
ing, or tasting, or touching, and to some extent 
hearing, but alas ! we can not long preserve our 
noses from the subtle influences of their sur- 
roundings. The question rises whether, if we 
endeavor to make any educative uses of this 
sense, we may not redouble the discomforts as 
well as the pleasures it may afford us. We do 
not, of course, succeed in marking the sense more 
keen ; we cause the mind to be more attentive to 
this source of sensation. The net result would 
seem to be that we may develop such repugnancies 
as shall remove the nuisance or cause removal 
from it. A community with fully educated noses, 
for instance, would suppress many previously 
endured annoyances. The education of the nose 
might thus have even a social outcome. This 
most democratic of senses might even stimulate 
a democratic revolt against the sources of foul 
odors. 

The Joy of Sounds 

Has your child noticed the different notes of 
the wind in the various kinds of trees? "Oak 
leaves," says Mary Webb, "on their firm, stiff 
stems, brush one another roughly ; long, pendent 
willow leaves move with a sleepy whisper: chest- 
nut leaves lip one another consolingly; the con- 
tinual motion of poplars sounds like running 
water, and in a quiet place you can hear it across 
a wide field. The wind fans in the maple, harps 
in the needles of a pine, sighs in silver birches, 
and rolls like an organ in the cedar." 

The majority of children have never heard 
an echo. An echo requires some flat, unbroken 
wall and distance. Wherever there are many 
walls there is usually little space for distance. 
The most hopeful combination is a country barn 
and a meadow. The writer, though once a farm- 
boy, will never forget the first time, when quite 
a sizable lad, too, that he ever stopped long 
enough to hear an echo. It was, as a forgotten 
writer says, "as if a spirit lay in that distant 
valley, and laughed shrilly at you, repeating itself 
brokenly as its voice grew less and less." 

Plays with Other Senses 

It is in the contest for the Degree of Colonial 
Housekeeper ("Gaiat") in the Woodcraft League 
that most pleasant and varied use of sense-plays 
is made. These are some of the suggested points : 

"i. Gather bayberries and make four candles 
dipped or molded, each six inches, for the Four 



Fires (the Fire of Fortitude, the Fire of Beauty, 
the Fire of Truth, and the Fire of Love). 

"5. Make a lavender box, i.e., grow, gather, 
dry, and use the lavender in a clothes-chest. 
Same for lemon verbena (tripoliiini). 

"6. Potpourri — Make enough to measure one 
quart when dried and spiced. 

"/. Make one pint of elderflower water. 

"8. Gather and make marigold salve and pru- 
nella salve, or witch-hazel salve. 

"9. Make cherry balm of 'black cherry bark. 

"11. Gather the sap and make of it a pound 
of sugar, either from -maple or ash-leaved maple. 

"16. Brew sage tea, mullein tea, boneset tea, 
camomile tea, and ginger tea. 

"17. Gather and make half a pound of candied 
sweet flag (calamus), mint leaves, rose leaves, 
or violets. 

"30. Make, decorate, and stuff a hop pillow." 

A Day of Sense-Impressions 

To show how we might enrich the lives of our 
little children as well as our own, if we would 
more constantly open the gateways of our senses, 
let us imagine a wholly practicable day of sense- 
impressions. 

Morning 

Sunrise 

The clarion of the distant train 

Bird-songs 

The factory whistles 

The rustle of leaves beneath the feet (in Autumn) 

The splashing of the brook in the woods 

The color of leaves held up against the light 

The goldfish in the dining-room bowl 

The smell of baking 

Aftcr>won 

Leaves seen at the bottom of a roadside pool 

The smell of bonfires 

The footbeats of horses over a rustic bridge 

Late afternoon shadows 

Smells of the harvest field 

Sunset light 

Evening 

Crackle of flames in the fireplace 
The lighted room seen from outside 
Moonlight seen from the window 
Piano-playing heard across the lawn 
The rustle of silken garments 
The taste of apples, and their smell 
Hydrangea blossoms ghostly in the moonlight 
Street cries and sounds 

How easy it would be to make a fresh list for 
every new day, and to extend and enrich our 
experiences, simply by listening, watching, and 
waiting ! 



Two little children were seated on a doorstep in an Eng- 
lish city, holding something tightly grasped in their small 
hands and gazing with nuich eagerness toward the head of 
the street. Half an hour later they were seen again, still 
there, by a lady who was repassing. "I wonder whether 
you would tell me what you are doing?" she asked in sur- 
prise. One of them answered: "We are waiting for the 
barrer." 

It seems that once a week a flower-cart was driven through 
this narrow way, and that on a few red-letter days a flower, 
a sprig, or even a root had sometimes fallen out of the back 
of the cart. And here were these two children sitting in 
eager hope, with their hands full of soil, ready to plant any- 
thing which might by some golden chance fall their way. 

The parable is so obvious that I need not pound on it. 
The hands were small, but they were full of soil, they were 
outstretched, they were buoyant. — William Byron Forbush. 



TOM AND SARAH DURING THE KINDERGARTEN YEARS 



BY 



WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 



"What do you all think is the most noticeable 
thing about the twins?" 

It was their grandfather who asked the ques- 
tion. The whole family were out on the porch. 

"Speed," was their father's instant response, 
as they both went tearing past on their kiddie- 
cars. 

"Joy," said the grandmother. 

"Temper!" was the verdict of grandfather, 
who had had a recent collision with them both. 
"Or," he added, remembering another sort of 
episode, "maybe it is curiosity." 

"What does their mother think?" grandma in- 
quired. 

"I was trying to find a word to put it into, but 
I guess there isn't one. The thing I notice con- 
stantly is that they seem to be busy collecting 
experience." 

"Getting exposures," murmured Frank. "That's 
not bad. I suppose that must be what this per- 
petual motion all means. What do we do about 
it ? Or, as the soldier boys say, 'Where do we 
go from here ?' " 

"Do you know what Dr. Dewey's definition of 
education is?" asked Mrs. Howard with apparent 
irrelevancy. 

"We will now listen to the Gospel," confidently 
her husband asserted. "Nobody here knows but 
you. Out with it." 

"Education, Dr. Dewey says, is 'to find out 
how to make knowledge when it is needed.' " 

"Then the twins are getting educated all right. 
There is nothing they need to know that they 
don't discover on the spot." 

"And some things they don't need to know," 
their grandfather added, referring to their experi- 
ence with the beehive. 

"What are you driving at. Mother?" asked 
Frank, returning to the subject. 



"The twins are already getting educated, as 
you say, and they are getting their education in 
just the way John Dewey believes children ought 
to get it, by making their own knowledge right 
on the spot. What I am wondering is, whether 
we are helping them in the way we ought." 

"Nobody neglects them, I am sure," their 
grandmother said stoutly. "Certainly they get 
helped enough." 

Smothering with a Grandparent 

"Too much, perhaps," replied their mother. 
"That's just what I am worrying about. How 
can a child 'make' any knowledge when every- 
body hands it to him all ready-made?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"I think we give them too much help. With 
apologies to all present, the twins, in my judg- 
ment, are suffering from too much grandfather 
and grandmother" — here the older people visibly 
stiffened — "as well as too much mother and 
father. Dorothy Canfield Fisher says that, from 
the time a child emerges from babyhood, he 
usually has to fight constantly to get chances to 
help himself. She says that a dozen times a day 
we spring to serve a child in things that he can 
learn in five minutes how to do himself. Then 
she adds : 'There is no surer beginning for the 
habit of self-help than the consistent training 
of the capacity for it.' " 

"So you think we are spoiling our grandchil- 
dren?" Mr. Spencer asked in a hurt tone. 

"I wouldn't say that for worlds. You are just 
the dearest people on earth. I am not a bit better 
or wiser than you are, but since I noted what 
Mrs. Fisher says I am convinced that, while we 
are giving our children the best surroundings, 
we are all so afraid that they will get hurt or 



405 



4o6 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



drop something that they aren't getting the best 
they might out of what is about them." 

"For instance?" 

"They have too many mechanical toys, and not 
enough chances to build playthings for them- 
selves." 

"But they would pound their fingers," suggested 
grandma. 

"There we go again," her daughter answered. 
"What if they do? Won't that help teach them 
how to handle a hammer so they won't get 
pounded?'' 

"Their hands are not skillful enough to make 
anything that would hold together," father added. 

"What of that, too? They are not critical of 
their own handiwork. Don't you suppose tliey 
would take heaps more pride in a shack that 
they shaped up out of rough blocks or that they 
remodeled from a grocery-box than they do now 
in the painted doll-house and garage we bought 
them for Christmas?" 

"Well, I confess I would have done so when 
I was a boy. How about it, Frank?'' was Mr. 
Spencer's acknowledgment. 

]\Ir. Howard nodded his head. 

Home Kindergarten for Four-Year-Olds 

From that time onward the father and mother 
looked on with pleased curiosity at the self-edu- 
cation of their children through play. They saw 
how the dolls became the center of a varied con- 
structive activity in the way of homes, furnish- 
ings, and clothing, carts and cars, barns and 
stock, all devised out of the homely materials, 
such as boxes, cardboard, blocks, and old pieces 
of wood and cloth that were about the house. 
They were amazed to see how paper became 
transformed into scrapbooks, doll's dresses, cylin- 
ders, boxes, and baskets. Most of all, they were 
surprised to find how the load of builders' sand 
dumped in the backyard was both the scenery 
of the fairyland of play and the material for 
equipping that land with its castles and dungeons, 
its dug-outs and fortresses. 

"A hint at the right moment often keeps them 
in motion for an hour," their mother testified. 

"We never have to furnish motive-power," 
their father corroborated. "All we do is to keep 
the barnacles off the boat." 

These two were, as I hope you are beginning 
to see, average parents who were unusual only 
in the fact that they agreed in having some plan 
in their parenthood. With a carefully thought- 
out system they were making the most of the 
means and materials within their reach. There 
was no kindergarten in Hometown. 

"I am sorry, of course," Mrs. Howard was 



saying to her husband one day, "but at least four 
of the five essentials of the kindergarten we can 
supply right in our own neighborhood." 

"What are they?" 

"Play, nature, handiwork, stories (including 
song-stories of course). The fifth is sociability. 
We haven't the social circle of the kindergarten, 
and of course we older folks don't quite make 
up for it." 

"The twins seem to be company enough for 
each other," their father suggested. 

"H they didn't quarrel quite so terribly. But 
what I was going to tell you, Frank, is how much 
I believe you can help in our little home school 
with a certain 'stunt' of your own. And that," 
she hastened to add, "is nature study." 

"Oh, pshaw !" exclaimed Frank Howard. "I 
don't know a genus from a genius and I never 
dissected anything in my life." 

"I am so thankful 1" was the surprising reply. 
"They don't teach children that way nowadays. 
It is with Nature just as it is with other things, 
just as we have been learning it is with their 
play — stimulate their curiosity, put them into real 
situations, and they will do the rest. Of course, 
you have only Sundays, but you can at least pick 
out a tree and watch it with them during a season, 
note down the birds when they arrive, buy them 
a pair of rabbits and let them take care of them, 
and — but why should I talk ? You know far 
better than I what to do." 

Father Becomes an Amateur Nature- 
Teacher 

As a matter of fact Frank Howard, being a 
countryman, had a farm-boy's keenness of ob- 
servation, and as soon as his attention was called 
to the opportunity, he made his Sunday afternoon 
walks with the "kids'' twice as profitable as 
before. He developed considerable originality in 
method. For instance, he conceived the idea of 
classifying the birds and flowers simply by their 
colors, thus developing the twins' color-sense and 
giving them always a definite goal for their atten- 
tion. He found that they were both like magpies, 
already making random sorts of collections, so 
he got them to hunt for various shapes and sizes 
of nuts and seeds and to search for abandoned 
birds' nests. 

A year rolled round before he made any re- 
port, but the result was as astounding to himself 
as to the family. 

Five-Year-Old Nature Students 

"Tom and Sarah," he affirmed, "recognize 
twenty birds and they know at least thirty other 
animals. They can tell the names of over fifty 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



40?' 



flowers, grasses, and shrubs. They have a whole 
lot of facts about the sun and the stars and the 
weather, fog, snow, and ice. They can tell time, 
and read the thermometer and the barometer, 
and," he finished, "they have raised a dozen hills 
of corn and some pease and radishes, and they 
have 36 cents in their toy bank." 

"Is that last nature study?" asked their grand- 
mother. 

Stories Told with Rhythm and Song 

Perhaps you will be interested in some of Marj' 
Howard's experiences in telling stories. 

The children's first stories had been from 
Mother Goose, thus from the very beginning they 
associated rhythm and rhyme with story, as all 
children ought to do always. They never tired 
of this association. The\' loved to chant aloud 
about little Gustava, who 

"Wears a quaint little scarlet cap. 
And a little green bowl she holds in her lap, 
Filled with bread and milk to the brim. 
And a wealth of marigolds round the rim" 

and Riley's "Man in the Moon." who 

"Jes' dreams of stars, as tlie doctors advise — 
Mv ! 

Eyes ! 

But isn't he wise — 
To jes' dream of stars, as the doctors advise?" 

and the Peddler, whose 

"Caravan has windows too. 
And a chimney of tin that the smoke comes through; 
He has a wife with a baby brown, 
And they go riding from town to town." 

They loved song-stories too, "words that sing," 
Sarah called them, like the funny-sad tale of 
"Tit-willow," the jolly motion of "Jingle Bells." 
and their hereditary national air. "The Wearing 
of the Green." Mary was much pleased with this, 
because she had the feeling that song, as much 
as speech, is meant to be a child's native language. 
The little folks began to croon wordless tunes 
before they were three years old, but now they 
made up short musical phrases of their own. 
Like the little girl whom Josephine Preston 
Peabody tells of : 

"I sing about the things I think. 
Of almost everything. 
Sometimes I don't know what to think 
Till I begin to sing." 

Mary found much help in associating pictures 
with stories. The children liked to nestle, one 
on each side, while she opened the big picture- 
books, and look at them together. Sometimes 



they would follow the incidents by scanning the 
pictures closely, often interrupting to ask her 
questions. Sometimes they would talk about the 
characters on the pictured page, adding supple- 
mental incidents and quaint fancies of their own. 
Often they would insist that she make up stories 
to go with pictures, the accompanying tales of 
which were too mature to read to the children. 

Mary did not believe in teaching reading too 
early. She preferred that her little ones shou'ld 
learn first to read the great Book of Life, but she 
did permit them to make little folded-paper book- 
lets, and paste in the pictures of animals and 
children, under which .she would print titles in 
script, so that they learned to recognize a num- 
ber of words before they entered school. 

Mrs. Howard felt that fairy-stories are of the 
greatest moral value. They picture a friendly 
world, the kind of life that we dream of living, 
a condition in which kindness and thoughtfulness 
are rewarded and in which dragons and witches 
get what belongs to them. She was increasingly 
pleased to notice that there is hardly any child- 
problem or any childish virtue that has not been 
wrought out simply and convincingly in these 
old tales of the race. "Fairy stories and Bible 
stories," she used to say to her husband, "are 
my moral stock-in-trade." 

Tom and Sarah, Mother's Helpers 

But since none of us gets far on tow-ard 
heaven while sitting still, even while listening to 
or reading about goodness, this mother kept up 
her emphasis on the action-side of goodness by 
continuing those regular practices in home-help- 
fulness that were described in a previous chapter. 
Tom as well as Sarah never questioned the 
propriety of tidying up his room and putting 
away his playthings, learning manfully to dress 
himself, and answering to the call to be "Mother's 
little helper." Mrs. Howard made this part of 
the routine a pretty definite program. That is, 
she did not, like some mothers, call the children 
carelessly from their play to run miscellaneous 
errands or cause them to feel that their duties 
were constantly unexpected and never really over. 
She thought out each morning what she would 
require of them that day. their tasks were done 
within a time limit and after that they were free. 
Needless to say, they did most of their work 
together and in her company. 

Shall Mother Arbitrate? 

This practice had its difficulties. Mention has 
been made that the twins were quarrelsome. 
They were by no means angels. To he perfectly 
frank, they were sometimes like barking, and 



4o8 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



even biting, dogs. Sarah was a natural tease, 
and Tom quite shocked his father by his total 
lack of chivalry. Mary, however, quoted book 
and chapter to prove that self-control is not in- 
born and that temper is simply "high spirits 
joined to nerves and will." She also had G. 
Stanley Hall on her side to prophesy that even 
childish anger might be so handled as to become 
"a great and diffused power in life, rising to 
righteous indignation." She found some evidence 
that he was right, in the fact that already what 
the children quarrelled about generally was, after 
all, justice. 

"Is is always safe to interfere?" she queried. 
"Why should we ?" 

"For the sake of the neighbors, at least." 

"I do think that we ought perhaps to tell the 
children that if they can not quarrel quietly they 
shan't be allowed to quarrel at all. But often 
when we interrupt we simply stop the noise, while 
the real grievance keeps on smoldering." 

"That strikes me as a queer doctrine," Frank 
acknowledged. And I think this was a matter 
that they never quite agreed upon. Other parents 
have found it so. It is hard indeed to be sure 
that adult arbitration really helps, yet it is equally 
hard to believe that a running fire of exasperation 
does any children good. They did discover that, 
after all, each case of irritation has to be taken 
on its own merits, and that, in this as other things, 
the Yankee adage is wise, "When you don't know 
what to do- — don't do it." 

Imaginativeness in the Sixth Year 

"I shouldn't think you would dare to tell the 
children so many fairy-stories," her neighbor, 
Mrs. Walton, remarked to Mrs. Howard one 
afternoon. "They are only lies. And I think 
they teach children to tell wrong stories." 

"I am not so sure that fairy-stories are 'lies,' " 
Mrs. Howard responded. "Sometimes I think 
they are the truest truth there is." 

"But your children do tell lies, don't they? 
Tom was' over at our house the other morning, 
and he reeled off a regular whopper about how 
he went out into the woods and hunted for a 
golden bird and how he brought it home to you 
and a lot of other nonsense of that sort." 

"He got that out of one of the Grimm brothers, 
that I have been reading to them," Mrs, Howard 
recollected. 

"There! what did I tell you?" Mrs. Walton 
exclaimed, triumphantly. 

"In one sense," Mrs. Howard explained, "chil- 
dren tell the truth better than we do, because 
they report faithfully all that they dream and 
fancy as well as what they see and experience. 



But their imaginations are among their most 
precious possessions, and it is not so very hard 
after all to help them disentangle the fanciful 
from the real. I sometimes simply say to Tom 
and Sarah, 'Now, children, let us think quietly 
for a moment. We won't "play" any longer now. 
Just separate out the true part from the "made- 
up" part, and tell Mother what really happened.' 
I have never known them to fail, then, to be 
truthful and e.xact." 

Mrs. Walton no doubt went home unconvinced. 
But Mrs. Howard was right. Her children 
learned gradually to move consciously from the 
world of fancy to the world of facts, and in later 
years these fancies grew into creative imagina- 
tion, which made them resourceful, inventive, and 
courageous in their life-work. 

Reviewing Their Little Past 

"Somehow I don't feel like writing to-night," 
said Mary Howard on the eve of the twins' sixth 
birthday. 

"No 'inventory' this time?" inquired her hus- 
band. 

"It's a cold word, isn't it? Sounds like a list 
of what's in a garret. Couldn't we think of 
something more human? Something active, I 
mean." 

"Muster-roll, if it isn't too warlike," suggested 
Mr. Howard. 

"You remember the time we were all together 
on the porch, and the family could not decide 
whether it was Joy, Speed, or Temper that was 
the twins' watchword? What one word would 
you put them in, to-night?" 

"It seems to me we need all those three — and 
then some. Have you got the right word at your 
tongue's end? Something comprehensive-like, 
such as 'honorificability,' perhaps?" 

"If you should ask me the one thing that Tom 
or Sarah has been becoming this last year, or 
these last three years for that matter, I would 
say, 'Tom is becoming an individual.' For the 
first time, he is a distinct person. Of course, 
we think he has always been distinctive, and bet- 
ter than the average, and all that, but as I think 
him over, it seems to me that we can now see, 
even in his photographs, in his way of walking, 
in the way he holds things in his hands, in the 
way he makes up his mind, in his 'will' and his 
'won't,' that he is not merely a little boy who 
lives at Number 171 Lincoln Avenue; he is, for 
the first time, •To)n Hoivard. .'Xnd so it is with 
Sarah." 

"And how do you like the picture?" 

"It scares me a little. That's the reason I 
didn't want to write things down. He's a pretty 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



409 



good boy — now, but if you were to ask me to make 
a list of all his tendencies, I am afraid I should 
be too frightened to do so." 

"You don't happen to see a rope's end in his 
horoscope?" 

"No. You know what I mean. It is the 
thought that he is just beginning to get 'set' — 
isn't that what they say of molten metals when 



they start to harden? — and I'm wondering if we 
have been making the right mold for him." 

"It does get one to thinking, doesn't it? But 
we don't have to know it all in advance, or do 
it all at one time, you know." 

"No, that comforts me. It is day by day that 
he is living, and day by day that we can help 
him. I'm so glad we started early." 



WHAT SHOULD A CHILD KNOW WHEN HE ENTERS 

THE FIRST GRADE? 



BY 

H. G. WELLS 



When a child is five or six months old it will 
have got a certain use and grip with its hands, 
and it will want to handle and examine and test 
the properties of as many objects as it can. 
Gifts begin. There seems scope for a wiser 
selection in these early gifts. At present it is 
chiefly woolly animals with bells inside them, 
woolly balls, and so forth, that reach the baby's 
hands. There is no reason at all why a child's 
attention should be so predominantly fixed on 
wool. These toys are colored very tastefully, but 
these tasteful arrangements are simply an appeal 
to the parent. Light, dark, yellow, perhaps red 
and "other colors" seem to constitute the color 
system of a very young infant. It is to the 
parent, too, that the humorous and realistic quality 
of the animal forms appeal. The parent does 
the shopping and has to be amused. The babyish 
parent, who really ought to have a doll instead 
of a child, is sufficiently abundant in our world 
to dominate the shops, and there is a vast traffic 
in facetious baby toys, facetious nursery furni- 
ture, "art" cushions, and "quaint" baby clothing, 
all amazingly delightful things for grown-up 
people. These things are bought and grouped 
about the child, the child is taught tricks to com- 
plete the picture, and parentage 'becomes a very 
amusing afternoon employment. 

Necessary Tools 

I think it would be possible to devise a much 
more entertaining set of toys for an infant than 
is at present procurable, but, unhappily, they 
would not appeal to the intelligence of the aver- 
age parent. There would be, for example, one 
or two little boxes of different shapes and sub- 
stances, with lids to take off and on, one or two 
rubber things that would bend and twist about 
and admit of chewing, a ball and box made of 



china, a fluffy, flexible thing like a rabbit's tail 
with the vertebrse replaced by cane, a velvet- 
covered ball, a powder-puff, and so on. They 
could all be plainly and vividly colored with 
some non-soluble inodorous color. They would 
■be about on the cot and on the rug where the 
child was put to kick and crawl. They would 
have to be too large to swallow and they would 
all get pulled and mauled about until they were 
more or less destroyed. Some would probably 
survive for many years as precious treasures, 
as beloved objects, as powers and symbols in the 
mysterious secret fetichism of childhood — con- 
fidants and sympathetic friends. 

With speech humanity begins. With the dawn 
of speech the child ceases to be an animal we 
cherish, and crosses the boundary into distinctly 
human intercourse. There begins in its mind the 
development of the most wonderful of all con- 
ceivable apparatus, a subtle and intricate key- 
board, that will end at last with thirty or forty 
or fifty thousand keys. 

The next phase of our inquiry, therefore, is 
to examine how we can get this mental plant, 
this foundation substance, this abundant mastered 
language, best developed in the individual, and 
how far we may go to insure this best develop- 
ment for all the children born into the world. 

Tools of Speech 

From the ninth month onward the child begins 
serious attempts to talk. In order that it may 
learn to do this as easily as possible, it requires 
to be surrounded by people speaking one language 
and speaking it with a uniform accent. Those 
who are most in the child's hearing should en- 
deavor to speak — even when they are not ad- 
dressing the child — deliberately and clearly. All 
authorities are agreed upon the mischievous effect 



4!0 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



of what is called "baby talk," the use of an ex- 
tensive sham vocabulary, a sort of deciduous milk 
vocabulary, that will presently have to be shed 
again. Froebel and Preyer join hands on this. 
The child's funny little perversions of speech are 
really genuine attempts to say the right word, 
and we simply cause trouble and hamper develop- 
ment if we give back to the seeking mind its 
own blunders again. When a child wants to 
indicate milk, it wants to say milk, and not 
"mooka" or "mik," and when it wants to indi- 
cate bed, the needed word is not "bedder" or 
"bye-bye," but "bed." But we give the little thing 
no chance to get on in this way until suddenly 
one day we discover it is "time the child spoke 
plainly." There comes an age when children 
absolutely loathe these adult imbecilities. When 
a child says to its mother, "Me go nome," it is 
doing its best td speak English, and its remark 
should be received without worrying comment ; 
but when a mother says to her child, "Me go 
nome," she is simply behaving stupidly and losing 
an opportunity of teaching her child his mother- 
tongue. 

We have available now for the first time, in 
the more highly evolved forms of phonograph 
and telephone, a means of storing, analyzing, 
transmitting, and referring to sounds, that should 
be of very considerable value in the attempt to 
render a good and beautiful pronunciation of 
English uniform throughout the world. 

If a few men of means and capacity were to 
produce very cheaply, advertise vigorously, and 
disseminate widely, a small, clearly printed, 
clearly written book of pithy instructions for 
mothers and nurses in this matter of early speech, 
they would quite certainly effect a great improve- 
ment in the mental foundations of the coming 
generation. 

An important factor in the early stage of 
speech-teaching is the nursery rhyme. A little 
child, toward the end of the first year, having 
accumulated a really very comprehensive selec- 
tion of sounds and noises by that time, begins to 
imitate first the associated motions, and then the 
sounds of various nursery rhymes — "pat a cake," 
for example. In the book I imagine, there would 
be, among many other things, a series of little 
versicles, old and new, in which, to the accom- 
paniment of simple gestures, all the elementary 
sounds of the language could be easily and 
agreeably made familiar to the child's ears. 

His Speech Attainments 

And the same book I think might well contain 
a list of foundation things and words and certain 
elementary forms of expression which the child 



should become perfectly familiar with in the first 
three or four years of life. I think it would be 
possible to trace through the easy natural tangle 
of the personal brier-rose of speech certain neces- 
sary strands, that hold the whole growth together 
and render its later e.xpansion easy and swift 
and strong. Whatever else the child gets, it 
must get these fundamental strands well and 
early if it is to do its best. 

At the end of the fifth year, as the natural 
outcome of its instinctive effort to experiment 
and learn acting amidst wisely ordered surround- 
ings, the little child should have a vast variety of 
perceptions stored in its mind and a vocabulary 
of three or four thousand words, and among these 
and holding them together there should be cer- 
tain structural and cardinal ideas. They are 
ideas that will have been gradually and imper- 
ceptibly instilled, and they are necessary as the 
basis of a sound mental existence. 

His Conscience Attainments 

There must be, to begin with, a developing 
sense and feeling for truth and for duty as some- 
thing distinct and occasionally conflicting with 
immediate impulse and desire, and there must be 
certain clear intellectual elements established 
already almost impregnably in the mind, certain 
primary distinctions and classifications. 

His Sense Abilities 

The child at five, unless it is color-blind, should 
know the range of colors by name and distinguish 
them easily, blue and green not excepted; it 
should be able to distinguish pink from pale 
red and crimson from scarlet. Many children, 
through the neglect of those about them, do not 
distinguish these colors until a very much later 
age. 

I think also — in spite of the fact that many 
adults go vague and ignorant on these points — 
that a child of five may have been taught to 
distinguish between a square, a circle, an oval, 
a triangle, and an oblong, and to use these words. 
It is easier to keep hold of ideas with words than 
without them, and none of these words should 
be impossible by five. The child should also 
know familiarly — by means of toys, wood blocks, 
and so on — many elementary solid forms. It is 
a matter of regret that in common language we 
have no easy, convenient words for many of 
these forms, and instead of being learned easily 
and naturally in play they are left undistinguished 
and have to be studied later under circumstances 
of forbidding technicality. It would be quite 
easy to teach the child in an incidental way 
to distinguish cube, cylinder, cone, sphere (or 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



411 



ball), prolate spheroid (which might be called 
"egg"), the pyramid, and various parallelepipeds, 
as, for example, the square slab, the oblong slab, 
the brick, the post. He could have these things 
added to his box of bricks by degrees, he would 
build with them, and combine them, and play with 
them over and over again, and absorb an intimate 
knowledge of their properties, just at the age 
when such knowledge is almost instinctively 
sought and is most pleasant and easy in its acqui- 
sition. These things need not be specially forced 
upon him. In no way should he be led to em- 
phasize them or give a priggish importance to 
his knowledge of them. They will come into his 
toys and play mingled with a thousand other 
interests, the fortifying powder of clear general 
ideas, amidst the jam of play. 

His Power with Numbers 

In addition the child should be able to count, 
it should be capable of some mental and experi- 
mental arithmetic, and I believe that a child of 
five might be able to give the names to notes and 
sing these names at their proper pitch. Possibly 
in social intercourse the child will have picked 
up names for some of the letters of the alphabet, 
but there is no great hurry for that before five 
certainly, or even later. There is still a vast 
amount of things immediately about the child 
that need to be learned thoroughly, and a pre- 
mature attack on letters divides attention from 
these more appropriate and educational objects. 

His Art Attainments 

He should be able to handle a pencil and amuse 
himself with freehand: and his mind should be 
quite uncontaminated by that imbecile drawing 
upon squared paper by means of which ignorant 
teachers destroy both the desire and the capacity 
to sketch in so many little children. Such sketch- 
ing could be enormously benefited by a really 
intelligent teacher who would watch the child's 
efforts, and draw with the child just a little above 
its level. 

The child will already be a great student of 
picture-books at five, something of a critic (after 
the manner of the realistic school), and it will be 
easy to urge it almost imperceptibly to a • level 
where copying from simple outline illustrations 
will become possible, .'\bout five, a present of 
someone of the plastic substitutes for modeling 
clay now sold by educational dealers, plasticine. 



for example, will be a discreet and acceptable 
present to the child — if not to its nurse. 

His Imagination 

The child's imagination will also be awake and 
active at five. He will be living on a great flat 
earth — unless some officious person has tried to 
muddle his wits by telling him the earth is round; 
amidst trees, animals, men, houses, engines, uten- 
sils, that are all capable of being good or naughty, 
all fond of nice things and hostile to nasty ones, 
all tbumpable and perishable. 

And the child should know of Fairyland. The 
beautiful fancy of the "Little People," even if 
you do not give it to him, he will very probably 
get for himself; they will lurk always just out 
of reach of his desiring, curious eyes, amidst the 
grass and flowers and behind the wainscot and 
in the shadows of the bedroom. He will come 
upon their traces; they will do him little kind- 
nesses. Their affairs should interweave with the 
affairs of the child's dolls and brick castles and 
toy foundlings. Little boys like dolls — prefer- 
ably masculine and with movable limbs — as much 
as little girls do, albeit they are more experi- 
mental and less maternal in their manipulation. 

At first the child will scarcely be in a world 
of sustained stories, but very eager for anecdotes 
and simple short tales. At five I suppose a child 
might be hearing brief fairy-tales read aloud. 
At five it is undesirable that the child should 
have heard horrifying things and he should not 
be afraid of the dark. It is, I am sorry to believe, 
very difficult to eliminate the horrors of fear 
absolutely from a child's life. Vulgarly illus- 
trated toy books should be guarded against. 
Pictures of ugly monsters will haunt imaginative 
children for years. An intelligent censorship 
may do much to ward off these sufferings until 
this passion of fear — so needless in the civilized 
life — begins that process of withering which is 
its destiny under our present and future security. 
Cowardly mothers and nurses who scuttle from 
cows and dogs and prancing horses may do in- 
finite harm to a child by confirming this vestige 
of our animal past. The simple and obvious 
fearlessness of those about him should wean 
the child steadily from his instinctive dread of 
strangers and strange animals and strange, un- 
expected objects and sudden loud noises. 

This is the hopeful foundation upon which, at 
or about the fifth year, the formal education of 
every child in a really civilized community ought 
to begin. 



K.N.— 28 



AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR* 



ELIZABETH J. WOODWARD 



The door of the schoolroom grows larger and 
more portentous to the mother's vision as she 
realizes that it must soon open to the touch of 
her own child. Behind it she sees whatever her 
study and observation, her memory and her hope 
together, place there. She knows that it will 
open to a broader education than is outlined in 
books ; that the child clinging to her hand as 
the two set out on the eventful autumn morning 
when school begins, is taking his first step on 
the road that leads him far beyond where she 
will follow. She knows that a jury of his peers 
awaits him, for "even a child is known by his 
doings, whether his work be pure and whether 
it be right ;" and that through him she herself 
will be judged. She thinks of the old Persian 
standard of a boy's readiness for life — "to shoot, 
to ride, to tell the truth," and of the transition 
of it into the twentieth-century ideal — "brave, 
active, and joyful." Taking heart of joy, they 
cross the threshold, and the mother's dream — 
and dread— come true — her baby goes to school. 

The teacher greets the elders with cordial 
welcome, but on this first morning, she does not 
ask them to stay; and after they see "everything 
happy, progressive, and occupied," the mothers, 
sympathetic and critical, reluctantly leave; the 
door closes; teacher and class face their New 
Year and each other. School has begun. 

The air tingles with expectancy; the thrill of 
the unknown touches the newcomers, the love 
of little children and the sense of vicarious 
motherhood stir anew in the teacher. "Teacher" 
looks to the new pupil very like still another of 
the smiling aunties who have met him on so many 
thresholds during his short existence. She seems 
to like jolly little girls and boys. The room looks 
as if she knew how to play with them. The 
teacher scans the class for the shining morning 
face, for the healthy, happy child who has al- 
ready recognized the idea of obedience; for find- 
ing him she finds the nucleus of goodwill that is 
to become the morale of the class, the goodwill 
that holds within it the desire for at least the 
willingness to learn and the possibility of making 
learning popular. 



What the Teacher Seeks: Attitude 

A healthy little body the teacher wants to see 
settling itself with shy confidence into the un- 
familiar seat before her, a visible guarantee of 
nourishing food, long, regular hours of sleep, 
healthful activities ; a sound animal, whose ears 
and eyes, teeth and tonsils are normal and well 
cared for; whose illnesses are watched, without 
his knowledge, for after-effects on heart or head 
or kidneys ; the child of a home that, however 
slender the purse sustaining it, is rich in peace 
and in interests and in "steadfast purpose for 
service." 

She wants the attitude of healthy, happy 
children, willing, eager, and trustful, without self- 
consciousness, unafraid. Such children are truth- 
ful, for they have never been laughed at or 
frightened. The child who is mentally and physi- 
cally healthy is happy, trustful, bidable, all traits 
that help toward the self-control that is a part 
of early social education. If the love and wis- 
dom of his mother and father have kept and 
fostered confidence in the sincerity of grown-ups, 
he obeys his teacher and follows the impulse of 
social conformity, stands when the class is told 
to stand, places his work as others place theirs, 
is prompt and ready. But if he has been un- 
justly punished by an unthinking mother, or if 
Father has forgotten the gift he promised, if 
he has been deceived, the serpent has crept into 
his Eden and the little Adam loses confidence 
in the world about him, and with lost trust goes 
unconscious disobedience. 

The will to obey should have become habitual 
long before the schoolhouse dawned on the 
horizon of the child's world. Prompt, unquestion- 
ing obedience is an element of his safety. The 
child who obeys first and then asks, "Why?" has 
gone far on the road toward sane as well as safe 
living. "Stop, look, listen," are words not of 
arbitrary authority but of guardian wisdom. The 
man who refuses to heed the warning message 
crosses no more railways. Obedience is not the 
result of breaking a child's will, but of patience 
in teaching him how to become master of himself. 



* This inspiring article may well^ form the goal for all the home kindergarten activities of the fourth to eixth years. 
It should be read in close comparison with the preceding one. 

412 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



413 



The disagreeable habit of boasting is likely 
to become firmly established almost as soon as 
the young performer can say, "See me do this !" 
If it is not uprooted, the child goes on to the 
chronic stage of "stumping" other children and 
of taking their indiscriminate "dares," legiti- 
mate or foolhardy. If he can be shown that it is 
not brave and manly, but cowardly and silly, to 
be disobedient and rashly venturesome, he will 
be given stones of strength for building a char- 
acter that men will trust and admire. 

The teacher asks that the child have a budding 
sense of responsibility for his personal world. 
She would have him keep his coat on his own 
hook, not on some other boy's hook, to the con- 
fusion of the dressing-room and as an occasion 
for the boy who is spoiling for a fight ; she would 
like to have him recognize his own desk, keep 
his own pencil off the floor, and to understand 
that what is given him to do is his to do. 

With th' young obedience and responsibility 
she would seek for imagination. This she will 
develop in three ways : as fancy, that Land of 
Promise, where the child of five or six still lives 
and which may remain a source of joy however 
long one stays in this world ; as an element in 
construction, concrete and mental, though this 
looks far ahead through childhood into youth; 
and as the "put-yourself-in-his-place" quality, 
which is that kindly side of curiosity that leads 
to sympathy. Self-control, sense of responsibility, 
and imagination are essentials of learning to 
study. 

The teacher longs for the pupil who is eager, 
who has been held in the atmosphere of bigness 
of the world, in the joy of discovery. She would 
like to find him content with simple joys and toys, 
not fed upon change, uncertainty, and excitement. 
Her spirits sink or her ire rises when she must 
deal with the blase child who "did that last year;" 
he is apt to be "fresh" in situations where angels 
proverbially tread in fear. She hopes to find that 
her new pupil has been taught to think gener- 
ously and to play fair — the foundation upon 
which she is to build the democracy of life with 
his contemporaries. 

What the Teacher Seeks: 
Mental Equipment 

Attitude is far and away the most important 
requisite, the breath of life to the healthy school- 
room. After that moral atmosphere is secured, 
the teacher looks to the furnishing of the minds 
she is to live with until their next birthdays come 
around. She would- like each child to have some 
elementary acquaintance with the social topog- 
raphy of his world : his name — all of it — age. 



his birthday, where he lives, his father's name 
and occupation. This last item of economic in- 
terest is apt to be vague or even lacking in his 
store of knowledge, unless the father's work is 
manual or is otherwise indicated by tangible 
signs. A whole class of five-year-olds, whose 
fathers represented all the learned professions, 
business, big and small, and various active forms 
of public service, were asked, in New England 
idiom, "What does your father do?" They an- 
swered to a man, "Runs the automobile !" "Goes 
to the store," is another reply that covers a mine 
of ignorance as to what Daddy really does. 
"Father says he is the Governor" (w'hich was 
the fact), "but he jokes so much that I don't 
know if it is true." 

Some physical standards and habits of cleanli- 
ness and order the teacher assumes to be estab- 
lished : the fresh handkerchief — and its use, — 
healthful breathing habits, good standing and 
sitting positions, regularity of toilet needs. Of 
the healthy child she expects a firm handclasp, 
yet also the delicate use of the finger-tips which 
should be a result of his kindergarten training. 
Chubby hands should have become dexterous in 
dealing with buttons and shoelacings, and pur- 
poseful as to neckties. 

His new teacher would like to find that home 
has given him the sense of beauty, the habit of 
seeing the lovely rather than the ugly side of 
objects and actions. He should recognize color, 
and have simple but accurate names for standards. 
Form he should know through both eye and 
touch. Weight, bulk, form, "feel" of surface, 
these are natural material for baby discrimina- 
tion. This simpler knowledge is stored away in 
the brain of the normal child before he is three 
years old. He has taught himself, we say, but 
it is Mother Nature who sets the lessons to his 
hand, in stick and stone, kitty's fur and mother 
cat's tongue. Mother's gown and Father's coat. 

The teacher hopes that the mother has told 
stories to the little folks at home, enlarging the 
strained vocabulary and beginning the valued 
training of a good listener. The more familiar 
Bible characters should be at least bowing ac- 
quaintances, and he should know as much about 
them as he knows of his aunts and uncles. 
Mother Goose and all her community he should 
know intimately, as the most congenial and con- 
temporaneous of his classical friends-to-be. 

His Real and Unreal Life 

His home life, the world of make-believe, his 
kindergarten experiences, his tours of observa- 
tion and exploration, independent and personally 
conducted, should have stored his mind with in- 



414 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



terests — the singing kettle, the kite, the active 
pump, the trembling scales, "the wind in the 
willows," young growing things, the garden, 
chickens, kittens, and baby-birds. Sky and sea, 
trees and brooks, the ways of birds and animals, 
she would have him love "the friendly cow all 
red and white," even "Piggy Wig and Piggy 
Wee." Without some of this mental furnishing 
his early reading lessons are likely to be a dreary 
waste of pointless effort. 

His teacher would like to find that Christmas 
is already connected with the blessedness of giv- 
ing. This is possible and natural even if the few 
Christmases the child has seen have formed a 
blissful haze of trees and stockings, carols and 
toys, Santa Claus and the Christ Child. The 
Fourth of July, the birthdays of Washington and 
Lincoln, need not have exact location in the 
calendar of seasons, but should be associated in 
the child's mental storehouse with the vague con- 
ception of "My Country, 'tis of thee." The pass- 
ing flag should mean "Hats off" even when the 
infantile under-the-chin elastic makes the tribute 
of respect an affair of some effort. 

The farmer and the blacksmith, two of his 
kindergarten circle of friends, bring to even the 
city child the idea of dependence upon life outside 
his home. It is the lamplighter who introduces 
to him the idea of civic service. Stevenson again 
shows the eternal childhood of his heart in "The 
Lamplighter," verses that the city child continues 
to love long after his own particular lamplighter 
may have been disclosed as an unpoetic and per- 
haps unreliable person. The fireman is a hero 
of romance, the snow-shoveler is to be envied, 
but too often a child is taught to think of the 
policeman as the bogeyman. The policeman is 
the friend of children, not their enemy; he makes 
the crowded street safe for unsteady lines of 
little scurrying feet, he can find the way home 
when one turns a wrong corner following the 
organ-man with the monkey, he tells boys which 
way the procession is coming, and he takes care 
of little girls as if he had little girls of his own 
at home. The children should follow Father 
and Mother in saying, "Good-morning, Mr. 
Officer," to the patrolman who is the especial 
guardian of his home or school, and to count him 
within the enlarging group of friendly grown- 
ups. The city child should know before he goes 
alone to school that the many questions a curious 
young person who is new to this world naturally 
wishes to ask must be saved for Mother or 
Father, or asked of policeman or fireman, never 
of the pleasant stranger. The civic service and 
the uniform explain this rule, so that no seed of 
distrust need be sown by the distinction. 



A Normal Development 

Even well-meaning parents sometimes exploit 
the child's quick response and keen eye. Reading 
and arithmetic are such definite, measurable 
means of communication between mature and 
imm.ature minds that it is a temptation to begin 
to teach these early subjects. But the little per- 
sons need the before-school days for making 
acquaintance with the material side of this world. 
His every sense is keen for satisfaction, eye and 
ear, taste and touch, and sensitive little nose. 
These delights should have the first chance. 
The mathematical knowledge can be sound only 
so far as the child knows by actual touch and 
grasp the combination of numbers. The num- 
bers that he can grasp seldom are larger than 
the small figure that marks his age when school 
begins; yet too often the teacher is obliged to 
dispossess some proud mother of the idea that her 
son is already advanced in arithmetic because 
he can count to loo ! Nursery blocks and Christ- 
mas picture-books have usually made familiar 
the general appearance of most of the letters of 
the alphabet. This acquaintance is far from a 
necessary qualification for primary-school life, 
but it is desirable unless it has encouraged an 
ambitious mother to drag the reluctant beginner 
through the Primer. If reading has come by 
nature, at the child's own urgent wish, as if by 
instinct, it is a blessed gift. A child should be 
helped to read as soon as he really wants help, 
but to lead the reluctant little colt to water be- 
fore he is thirsty is to sacrifice to an artificial 
accomplishment the precious time and evefi more 
precious avidity that belongs to other interests. 

The child who begins school at five or six is 
still in the period of infancy; the transition to 
childhood is only in sight. Yet the teacher knows 
that the unformed mind is pondering — a heavy 
word for the fleeting thought-deep questions; she 
knows that it is the mother who is ignorant when 
she says that her child is "innocent as a baby" 
of any interest in the origin of the baby; the wise 
mother, in the sacred confidence of the tie that 
keeps the growing child her own, will have begun 
the necessary telling before he goes to school. 
She and his father will be so intimate with their 
children that son or daughter will come to them, 
not to other boys and girls, for further facts. A 
child who takes each new word to Mother or 
P'ather learns to avoid profanity, and to despise 
the "dirty" word as beneath his self-respect. 

Respect is the daughter of reverence ; the little 
primarian should already know the quiet due 
tlie reading or speaking of holy things, the at- 
tention even if he can not take part when teacher 




'•AXD THE THOUGHTS OV lOLlH 



Lu.Xu. LONG THOUGHTS." 

— Longfellow. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



415 



and class are talking to God in the morning 
prayer. 

Fortunate it is if home has given the little 
mimic clear enunciation, and a vocabulary that 
keep pace with his developing mind. The listen- 
ing teacher knows by his speech the place where 
he really lives — in the kitchen, in the nursery, 
or— happy child— with Father and Mother. Is 
it too much to ask that the child should sing? 
The kindergarten mother will have sung to and 
with her child from, "Here's a ball for baby," 
through a carefully chosen sequence of simple 
words and melodies of intimate relations, of home 
and Nature, folk-lore, industrial life, patriotism, 
and religion, not scorning a judicious sprinkling 
of popular songs, since he must hear even the 
injudicious variety. If he could bring this 
precious beginning of song, along with the new 
shoes and the cherished lunch basket, he would 
contribute much to the morale as well as to the 
music of the schoolroom. 

Mother and Teacher 

Prevention is not only better than cure, it is 
infinitely easier to manage and — American atti- 
tude ! — an almost infinite saving of time. So 
when the teacher asks that certain states and 
habits be established in the child before he says 
his first school "Good-morning," she is not think- 
ing of herself, but of the mother of the child. 
For, most of all, the child needs a good and wise 
mother, who, at least in spirit, comes with him 
to school. 

By the light of each little face held up to hers, 
the clear-eyed teacher reads the problem the child 
presents, but she is not sure of full and correct 
data until she knows the child's mother. It is 
inconceivable to her that any mother should 
choose not to come to school, should not wish to 
know the woman who for five days in the week 
is hostess to her child. 

Teacher and mother need each other. The 
teacher needs the help of the motherhood that 
is hers only in spirit. The mother needs the help 
of the technical training and broad outlook that 
her own absorbing profession has left her no time 
to acquire. The teacher needs all that home can 
tell her of the child's brief history, physical, men- 
tal, and moral; what heredity holds to help or 
hinder; what especial help or hindrance lies in 
environment. She wants to be told if scarlet- 
fever has left Mary with impaired hearing, if 
fiery little Tom is being shown at home how to 



control his too-ready fists and heels, if Amy 
dreams of the strange creatures in the reading 
book she so dearly loves. Jack is weak and 
weepy by the middle of the forenoon, but his 
state of mind and body is explained when teacher 
is told that breakfast is never attractive to his 
uncertain appetite. 

The teacher of little children recognizes that 
the father's character, a largely determining ele- 
ment in children's education, she is to feel only 
as it is translated by mother and child; yet if she 
is to give her fullest measure of help, she must 
use both translations to their utmost value, lest 
the coming generation should be brought up as 
children of women, rather than in the broader, 
more inclusive, world of the children of men. 

The mother needs the teacher as well. The 
teacher is not only a wholesome, conscientious 
woman, she is the link connecting mother and 
child with the long chain of education. She em- 
bodies "the American passion for childhood." 
Seeing the ideal that the best minds hold for the 
child, she is educated and trained as guide on 
the path toward that ideal. The mother sees her 
child as the one clearly defined central figure 
in a group (otherwise nebulous) of other chil- 
dren. To her heart and mind, her own ewe lamb 
is, and rightly, the one crowning achievement 
of the universe. The teacher sees the child 
against a clear background of all children of 
the same age whom she has taught and from 
whom she has learned, and her picture is lighted 
by the lamp of professional impartiality. 

They need to confer in sympathy and confi- 
dence. The teacher respects the mother's in- 
timate and continuous knowledge of the child 
and looks to the mother for corresponding 
recognition of her professional equipment and 
resources. If the welcomed mother comes in the 
spirit of helpfulness and cooperation, of desire 
to learn, of entire readiness to give and to re- 
ceive all needed confidence, their child's first 
year of school has auspicious beginning. But it 
takes courage and a dropping of the barrier of 
parental pride to invite frankness from the 
teacher's lips, for even the exceptional child is 
not always in the right. 

When the day comes that Mother and Father 
confer frankly with teacher as with a "reserve 
parent," the combination will be strong for good 
to the child they are sharing. There will be no 
conflict of authority, fewer uncertain steps, and 
together they can save him from the "confusion 
of education." 



Between the bookcase and the wall 
Is raised a castle, gray and tall, 
The desk top is a wooden moat. 
The rocking chair's a pirate boat, — 
My little boy, turned six to-day. 
Has fierce adventures in his play. 

ye who never knew the life 
Of dragon-hunting, golden strife 
Of pirates on a windy sea 
Returning meekly home for tea; 

[Who never heard the black knight's call — 

1 fear ye have not lived at all ! 

— Annette Wynne. 



SUPPLEMENTAL ARTICLES 



HOME CORRECTIVES FOR THE KINDERGARTEN 



MAXIMILIAN E. P. GROSZMANN, Pd.D. 



It has been, in a measure, a misfortune for the 
kindergarten that it has succeeded so well in 
this country. In its own native home it has never 
been fully recognized in the public-school system; 
and private initiative, adapting itself to local and 
special needs, kept the kindergarten idea freer 
from formalism that was possible here. As soon 
as the kindergarten became a feature of public- 
school education, in the American system, it par- 
took of the faults characteristic of that system. 
It ceased to be a kindergarten and became a 
classroom arrangement. It imprisoned the chil- 
dren indoors and became a matter of chairs and 
tables and order and discipline and quiet and co- 
ordination. However, the young child is repeat- 
ing in his life-instincts, his games, his experiments 
with the world about him, the experience of early 
race-history. He wants to play on the floor, not 
to sit orderly for any length of time on a chair ; 
he wants to play in a sand-heap, not on a sand- 
table; he wants to be dirty, not neat; he wants 
to play with water, and wade, and throw, and 
climb, and drop things, and play hide-and-seek, 
and use a stick, and do all sorts of primitive 
things. The child who easily conforms to the 
routine of an orderly kindergarten is either ab- 
normal or subdued. 

Again, the young child is not naturally a social 
being. He is individualistic, just as his remote 
ancestors were who saw in every other individual 
a competitor. True, this independence must be 
converted into a realization of the social con- 
science. But this is a growth which can not be 
forced, or else it will be an artificial thing, and 
the child so constricted will harbor an everlasting 
resentment against a social order which curtails 
his freedom. No wonder that we have so little 
community spirit among our grown-up popula- 



tion. The time comes naturally when the child, 
seeking companionship for the projection of his 
own personality into other lives and enlarging 
his own personality by making others a part of 
his own emotional and mental being, will socialize 
himself. Then the rights and privileges of com- 
munity life, as well as the duties and functions 
involved in it, will enter into his consciousness. 

What Montessori Taught Us 

It is here where the so-called Montessori 
methods have hit the kindergarten hard. These 
methods and suggestions are by no means origi- 
nal, having been used for a long time in a pro- 
gressive reconstruction of school and kindergarten 
systems. They have characterized our work for 
the exceptional child in particular, and had been 
formulated long before we heard of Montessori. 
It is, however, interesting to note how the Ameri- 
can public, as soon as a foreign voice was raised 
in iconoclastic enthusiasm, immediately clamored 
for the recognition of principles which it had so 
long considered with distrust. Now, all of a 
sudden, teachers discover that it is really possible 
to have a group of children under much greater 
individual freedom than had been thought feas- 
ible.* In the light of these principles the teacher 
is first of all an observer. She studies the situa- 
tion and acts accordingly; she does not approach 
the child with a preconceived idea of system. 
She realizes that obedience is a sacrifice of self 
on the part of the child, a sacrifice that will be 
made more readily when the child, not knoivs — ■ 
for that is impossible at that stage — but feels the 
necessity for it, through the confidence his edu- 
cational leader and his comrades inspire in him. 



* Compare this statement with Dr. Kilpatrick's on page 433. 



417 



4i8 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



This is certainly the manner in which a normally 
vigorous child in the Iiome is educated. Force and 
punishment, fear, and even an artificially stim- 
ulated desire to please will never develop a child's 
best, innermost faculties. He may become a con- 
former, a pattern, a hypocrite, a coward, a prig, 
an "average" child, but never a character. 

It is almost superfluous to add that further 
adjustments of the daily routine must be made 
to suit the needs of individual types of mind. It 
is essential to make distinctions at the early age 
so as to start the child right on his career. I 
admit that the finer individual differences, such 
as represent an accumulation of family traits, 
imitations of environmental conditions, and special 
endowments and preferences, manifest themselves 
fully only at the period of adolescence. Yet even 
in the baby difference of type is clearly recog- 
nizable. 

Even Little Children Differ 

There is, first, the difference in physical and 
mental growth-rate. Not all children of three 
of four can wear garments of the regulation size 
or react upon stimuli in a uniform manner. 
Their sense perceptions and reactions will show 
wide differences: their motor coordination, their 
balance, their initiative and constructive ability 
will vary within wide limits. Their endurance, 
their concentration, their ability to learn from 
errors will show a multitude of differences. They 
will progress with a very great diversity of speed. 
Some will still need the large gifts and to work 
in their occupations on a large scale, when others 
will have proceeded far enough to cope with 
rather minute adjustments. Some will still be 
satisfied with the symbol when others will want 
realities. There are similar differences in the 
older ages. Age is a very relative thing. The 
condition of a child at any given chronological 
age is determined by a number of growth factors 
— physiological, psychological, and mental. 

Further, there are distinct differences in mental 
attitude and aptitude. Some children are born 
individualists, born leaders; others are naturally 
conformists and want to be led. There is the 
child who is afraid of nothing; and the other 
who shrinks from publicity and competition. 
There is the one who is always original and in- 
ventive and who hates merely to imitate; others 
have no spark of originality and depend absolutely 
upon models and patterns. Should you not con- 
sider these differences, among many others? 
You will surely not say that it is one of the first 
duties of the kindergarten to curb the forward 
child, to check the impulse of leadership, to mold 
the heretic thought and nonconformist method 



into the form of conventionality. The history of 
the race is so full of bloody struggles against 
orthodoxy of all kinds that we should guard 
against the stifling of souls in the beginning of 
their growth. Not oppression, but wise guidance, 
on the basis of a real understanding and appre- 
ciation of underlying motives and conditions, is 
what is needed. It is only too often the bright 
child, the child of initiative, that is made the 
victim of the leveling efforts of the school and 
kindergarten, so that his career is hazarded from 
the first. So few of us have the faculty, or the 
patience, to enter into the intentions of little 
children. Their actions are often gravely mis- 
understood, their motives unappreciated, their 
minds and morals undervalued, their emotions 
misrepresented. A gulf will then open between 
the teacher, or parent, and this budding soul, a 
gulf difficult of bridging; and the young heart 
will shut itself in, and the young mind will be 
warped. 

The Average Kindergartner Overdevelops 
Imitation 

To illustrate, I will refer to a very common 
practice. The kindergarten teacher will draw 
houses, tables, cats, and other things on the black- 
board or show these forms in the way of stick- 
laying; or develop sequences with the building 
gifts, illustrating steps, bridges, and other struc- 
tures ; or punch holes in sewing-cards for the 
sewing-out of conventional and life forms, etc. ; 
and the children are expected to imitate these 
things in the regulation way. This presupposes 
that they see the things represented in the same 
symbolical form the teacher sees them, which 
form is intended to contain all the essential 
features of the objects thus delineated. But a 
study of the spontaneous drawings and structures 
of children shows that this is a mistake. Chil- 
dren do not see things in the regulation way. 
To them, features quite different from what the 
teacher thinks should be shown in the reproduc- 
tion seem essential.* 

The blackboard forms of houses, cats, etc., are 
nothing but pictographs, picture-writing, hiero- 
glyphics, as it were, symbols of the real things, 
and the child uses them as such. In the ordinary 
practice, whenever he is asked to draw, or lay 
with sticks, or build with blocks, or what not, a 
certain object first so presented, he will always 
reproduce the original symbol without any free- 
dom of deviation, or any attempt to express what 
is really in his mind. Thus, a conventional 
method is introduced which counteracts the nat- 



'Compare tliese statements with the earlier articles on art- 
expression. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



419 



ural instinct of the child to represent things in 
his own way. The ordinary exercises perpetuate 
this conventionalization. Individual attitudes and 
visions are entirely lost sight of, and much op- 
portunity is lost to study and understand what 
is really in the child's mind or where his aptitude 
lies. 

Imitation is said to be one of the fundamental 
instincts of the child at early stages. True 
enough; but imitation rightly understood. As 
said before, there are children who can do little 
more than imitate; but they must not set the pace 
for all. As soon as the teacher leads the child 
into stereotyped form, she is on the wrong track. 
She must always first appeal to the child's own 
method and merely assist him in expressing him- 
self. In this connection, I am, as often, reminded 
of the paradoxical declaration of the lata Dr. 
Harris: "Of course, the teacher must be an 
example ; but she must take care that no one fol- 
lows it." In other words, while she should be 
an inspiration to the child to find the right path, 
she must never be a pattern after which he molds 
his own individuality. 

The Ideal Kindergarten is Like a Home 

A kindergarten should have the wide scope 
of a well-regulated home in which each child 
may live his own life and share the life of his 
fellows. There should be presiding over it a 
motherly spirit of large sympathies and of fine 
discriminative power, with large resources, as 
to self-adjustments to ever-changing situations. 
There must be the atmosphere of freedom and 
encouragement. There must be readiness of a 
true interpretation of all manifestations of the 
budding infantile minds. There must be open- 
air work, in a garden, in a yard, with sand-piles. 



flower-^beds, climbing-ladders, swings, and pud- 
dles. The room of the kindergarten must be a 
paradise of toys and activities. Add the work- 
bench and the multitude of really educational 
toys and occupations which are so abundant 
nowadays to the traditional gifts of the kinder- 
garten. Break up the monotony and the routine 
of the orthodox program and introduce the child 
into a world of real life. There are numberless 
songs and games that can be safely adopted into 
the system. Let the children express their own 
feelings in free rhythm, in dance, and in song. 
Do not tarry over the songs of the shoemaker, 
blacksmith, and carpenter, but take the children to 
the workshops to see the men at work. Take 
them on excursions to the country instead of 
merely singing and -talking about the farmer and 
sowing and reaping and threshing. Let them 
have miniature garden-farms and shops of their 
own, with real tools and spades and wheelbarrows 
and work that will give their growing bodies 
exercise such as mere calisthenics never will 
provide. There should be more virility in the 
kindergarten, not merely girlish notions of butter- 
flies and dandelions and chickadees. Do not for a 
moment forget that even very little boys are real 
boys, after all. Then there will soon be a won- 
derful activity and bustle, and individual aptitudes 
will manifest themselves for you to observe and 
study and make use of — use. not for the individ- 
ual child alone, but for the child community, 
which will profit by this sharing. And the shar- 
ing will react in a socializing way upon the in- 
dividual. Break up the lockstep in the kinder- 
garten and set the ■ example for our elementary 
and high schools, so that they also may set the 
child free and give the different types oppor- 
tunity to grow unfettered but wisely guided.* 



THE KINDERGARTEN YEARS t 



IRVING E. MILLER 



Physical Development 

At the beginning of the period he has a good 
deal of difficulty with such processes as button- 
ing his clothes, lacing and tying his shoes, putting 
on his mittens and rubbers, and in many of the 
rhythmic exercises in marching and dancing. His 
use of the pencil and brush results in the crudest 



of scrawls. Cutting with scissors is a difficult 
problem of manipulation. In all constructive 
work he fumhlcs and blunders and is lacking in 
accuracy. His activities are highly spontaneous. 

Mental Development 

The most marked mental characteristic of this 
period is the rapid development of the imagina- 



* Compare these closing sentences with G. Stanley Hall's article on rage 429. 

t From "Education for the Needs of Life," by Irving E. Miller. Published by the Macmillan Company, New York. 
Used by permission of the publishers. 



420 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



tion. The mind is capable of reading more mean- 
ing into what is seen, heard, and felt. This is 
the golden era of the child's spontaneous imagi- 
nation. It transforms everything that he does. 
This is reflected in the eager questioning of the 
child, which goes beyond what is given to the 
senses, and wants to know what is coming next? 
what is this for? where are you going? what for? 
and a host of other things, the answers to which 
are not apparent to the senses. Ideas which 
appeal are carried out into action. Play is trans- 
formed and becomes dramatic in character. The 
chair is not something to be pushed about for the 
mere pleasure of physical control; it has become 
a train of cars, a delivery wagon, a fije-engine, 
or something else for which the child has a vivid 
image that is pressing for release. 

The activity of the imagination widens the field 
of control. The mind reaches out actively to 
enrich and correlate experience. The fact that 
the fire-engine passed an hour ago, vomiting 
smoke and flame and making a most exciting din, 
does not remove it from the sphere of the child's 
present interests and activities. In play he can 
bring it back ; he can clothe the chair which is 
at hand with all the interesting characteristics 
of the fascinating engine. In imaginative play 
everything in heaven above and in the earth be- 
low is brought under the mental control of the 
child. He is monarch of all he surveys; time and 
space fix no bounds to his empire. There is 
nothing which he can not have if he will — drums, 
soldiers, stores, engines, and the wild animals of 
desert and jungle. There is nothing that he may 
not be, from the coal man to the king. Every- 
thing yields to his control. The world is free 
and plastic, to be molded to his will. In his 
imagination and dramatic play he can satisfy to 
the full his natural impulse for power and 
control. 

Social Development 

On the social side, this is the period in which 
the child gets control of the fundamentals of 
social adjustment. In his wider contact with 
children and adults in the school and the neigh- 
borhood, the basic things in manners, morals, 
ideals, and the forms of speech are assimilated 
and put to use in the control of his own behavior. 
Hence there is very great importance to be at- 
tached to an enriched and vital social life in the 
school. And it must reflect in a dramatic way 
the interests and activities of the real world in 
so far as they touch the lives of children. That 
has been one of the most significant things about 
the kindergarten, and the primary grades have 
become infected with the same spirit and point 



of view. The enrichment and development of 
social experience is a very important task. 

Individuality and Personality 

This whole period of the child's life is marked 
by great freedom, spontaneity, and impulsiveness. 
The inner life of thought and feeling flows nat- 
urally out into action with little constraint. The 
child is frank and innocent and trustful. His 
natural credulity and ignorance on the one hand 
and his natural spontaneity on the other make 
him very suggestible. He can be turned easily 
from one state of feeling or emotion to another, 
or from one line of action to another. His will 
is likely to be fluctuating and unstable ; but in 
the line of his instincts and most absorbing in- 
terests he is likely to display considerable con- 
centration and tenacity. This should be respected 
and guided as the basis of training in work and 
conscious effort and will. With the growth of 
control over the more complex muscular activ- 
ities, his power to achieve is widened in range. 
When to this is added the growing power to 
direct his activities by images or ideas, he comes 
to feel his own power and to realize himself 
as a cause, a center of power on his own account. 
This new consciousness of power is enjoyable, 
perhaps as subtle and far-reaching a source of 
satisfaction as it is to the normal adult. It is 
not to be wondered at if he sometimes exagger- 
ates it, to get the heightened effect which comes 
from the setting of his own will up against that 
of others. The development of a certain amount 
of aggressiveness and self-assention is normal to 
this period and is a sign of progress in self- 
control and social adjustment. 

Principles of Interpretation of the Child's 
Imagination 

The whole mental life of the child of this 
period is markedly subject to the law of motor 
flow of consciousness. This accounts for the 
spontaneity and irrepressibility. His attention is 
mobile and fluctuating, caught first by one thing, 
then another. To have an image or an idea is 
to act. It is something on the go. It is not held 
back and checked up by considerations and orderly 
control of the adult mental process. This is seen 
in the infinite variety and fluctiicition of his play, 
corresponding to the rapid shifting of imagery 
and interests. There is a strong tendency in 
such school exercises as drawing and construc- 
tion work not to wait for completed directions 
but to plunge in and do something at once, to 
express the first image that arises in response to 
the words or the acts of the teacher. In drama- 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



421 



tization and other forms of school work the same 
principle applies. 

He tends to act upon his image at once. The 
more interesting it is, the stronger the motor 
pressure for expression. He doesn't question its 
validity, he lets it go. This is well seen in the 
child's early drawings. Their crudity and lack 
of conformity to reality doesn't bother him at 
all. He is very naive in the matter. He under- 
takes with equal readiness to draw birds, animals, 
machinery, landscapes — a few scratches of the 
pencil or crayon and the magic is accomplished. 
I watched a boy of pre-kindergarten age draw 
an "electric factory," then lightning striking it, 
and upon suggestion he didn't hesitate to draw 
the thunder, too ! He was all excitement, aflame 
with the idea, and never raised any question of 
possibility or impossibility. The pressure of the 
idea had to be released in crayon and in talk. 
The child who is asked to draw the picture of 
an apple with a stick thrust through it makes 
the stick show full length, instead of the two 
ends which are actually visible. He is not both- 
ered by the fact that the picture of the man 
standing beside the house is taller than the house, 
or that the furniture shows right through the 
walls. His images are vague and fleeting; move- 
ment, go, expression, is the main thing. It is the 
image that is interesting, the fact is subordinate. 
This is seen in the tendency for him to tell as 
true things which have only occurred to his mind. 

Widening and Unifying of Experience 

Through the function of imagination the child 
is reaching out for a wider and more unified 
experience. Fairy-stories bring things together 
in fanciful unities that are emotionally satisfying. 
Hero-stories give organizations of experience 
analogous to those of real life and illustrate the 
virtues in a setting of concrete relationships. 
Stories of plant and animal life bring together 
from a wide range of sense-perception, experi- 
ence involving wide gaps of time and space, many 
facts into one meaningful and satisfying whole. 
From the point of view of meeting the insistent 
needs of this period for the organization of ex- 
perience, no teaching instrument is superior to 
the story. 

When we try to give to the ideas of the child 
of this period a finished scientific form, we do 
violence to the plastic, spontaneous, and emotional 
nature of his imagination. This should not mean, 
however, that fictitious things are to be preferred 
to those which are real and true. The real and 
the true in Nature and in life may have a per- 
sonal value to the child and a warmth of interest 
just as strong as the fanciful and the fictitious. 



Hero-stories and nature study meet his needs 
side by side with myths and fairy-stories. 

Kindergarten-Primary Period as a 
Transition Age 

Our whole discussion of this period has tended 
to emphasize the fact that it is the era of greatest 
physical and mental spontaneity in the life of the 
child. But this spontaneity is not a fixed and 
final characteristic. There is significant progress 
made in the direction of higher types of control. 
Transitions are under way. In meeting the needs 
of this period, of course it is necessary to un- 
derstand the mobility and spontaneity of the 
entire life of the child. But it is also necessary to 
keep in mind the line of development and prog- 
ress, in order that the activities of the child 
may be guided into the most fruitful channels. 

Dominant Point of Viewf in Instruction 

The ideal of instruction for this period is that 
of the growth and enrichment of experience 
through the pupil's own immediate activities, 
physical and mental. In the enriched e.xperience 
of this plastic age are to be found the roots of 
all further knowledge, skills, aptitudes, traits 
of character, dispositions, interests, and ideals. 
Hence we must extend the number and the range 
of kindergarten and primary activities and 
materials. His experience should include an 
acquaintance with such fundamental materials as 
earth, fiber, fabric, wood, and metal: with funda- 
mental tools and their uses — knives, scissors, saws, 
and other cutting tools, hammer, screw-driver, 
auger, and the various simpler carrying, prying, 
and lifting tools: with fundamental processes of 
the life of the home and the neighborhood; with 
the fundamental social relationships of the home, 
the school, the playground, the church, and the 
community; with the fundamental ideals of the 
rights and obligations of persons, of unselfish- 
ness, kindliness, service, etc. Utilize his curiosity, 
imagination, and love of the story and the pic- 
ture to quicken the outreach of his mind and to 
supplement his familiar experience. 

Enrich his moral and religious life with every- 
thing appropriate to his age, rather than teach 
forms, symbols, and creeds. Cultivate his spon- 
taneous feelings, attitudes, and impulses toward 
the good, the beautiful, and the true until they 
become inherent and the trend of his life is set 
in these directions. Give abundant experience in 
self-expression — in play, dramatization, drawing, 
paper cutting, pasting of pictures, rhythmic exer- 
cises, singing, and the various forms of con- 
structive work with the hands. 

In construction, drawing, music, reading, and 



422 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



writing, let the emphasis be put on self-expres- 
sion and the satisfaction of the child's natural 
impulses rather than on the finished products. 
Get children to loz'e what they are doing, really 
to Ik'e in the school and its activities. This is 
the big thing in the kindergarten and primary 
grades as compared with skill or the objective 
worth of the product that is produced. It is not 
the time for great stress upon technique. The 
story and the zest of the pursuit is more important 
at the beginning than phonics ; drawing and the 
delight in the creative and expressive powers 
transcend in value the ability to make straight 
lines or lifelike reproductions of e.xterna! realities. 
Neither motor nor mental processes are suffi- 
ciently developed and brought under control to 
justify strong pressure on the child for fine, de- 
tailed, and exact work. This does not mean that 
all sorts of crudities are to be tolerated perma- 
nently in the progress of children through these 
years, but rather that the emphasis shall be kept 
constantly on function, self-expression, enrich- 
ment of experience, and that the technical ele- 
ments shall be brought in gradually, as it becomes 
evident that the child needs them as means for 
improving his growing powers of understanding 
and appreciating finished products. 

Outside of the constructive activities, the story, 



with its appeal to tlie imagination, is the funda- 
mental teaching-instrument. The moral and so- 
cial value of stories does not consist in the use 
of them as a ba.sis for a series of homilies or as 
a means of moralizing, but rather in whatever 
they have of truths and of ideals that are vital 
and palpitating with spirit, life, and emotion. On 
account of the mobility of the child's attention 
and the unreflective character of his thought, the 
same theme must be approached from a variety 
of directions if it is to get its full grip upon the 
life of the child. Stories to be effective, either 
in the impressing of ideals or of fundamental 
facts of nature and of life, need to be grouped 
carefully about a central theme, so that the im- 
pression is renewed and impressed repeatedly. 

In the disciplinary control of the child of this 
age the principle of suggestion is fundamental. 
He is exceedingly responsive. The attention may 
stray easily, at the same time it is easily caught 
again. He is naturally trustful and wishes to be 
liked. The teacher should call forth his faith 
and confidence, lead and inspire, rather than drive 
by authority and force. Discipline of little chil- 
dren is almost wholly a matter of conducting the 
work in such a way as to make repeated appeals 
to attention, not requests or demands for atten- 
tion. 



FREEDOM OF EXPERIMENT IN THE KINDERGARTEN* 



BY 



FRANK M. McMURRY, Pn.D 



The learning process demands things in activity. 
Consequently when we enter a kindergarten and 
see on every hand evidences of formal work, as, 
for instance, borders of flowers "gradually de- 
veloped" from half-inch rings, or children follow- 
ing the directions of the teacher in their block 
building, the entire class repeating certain "units 
of form," "selected" either by the teacher or 
through her influence, or see these children 
struggling away with the square tablets to "in- 
vent" a beauty-form to be reproduced in par- 
quetry, or make a picture which will gain her 
approval, we know that the teacher has inter- 
preted the child from above down, that she has 
not taken him as he is but as she wishes him to 
be. Such a method is not conducive to the learn- 
ing process. 



Accept the Child's Play Ideas 

The teacher of young children who can sit 
down with them, accepting any play suggestion 
that they may give and still make sure that they 
find a real discovery, or result, the one who could 
work with any material, even though it isn't ex- 
actly right, and still carry out a principle, this is 
the teacher who commands method. There is 
no one method, but a perfect blend of Teacher, 
Pupils, and Material. It is evident that this would 
give just opportunity for the activity of all three 
factors, opportunity to try a variety of ways of 
going about things to arrive at certain ends— 
in other words, freedom to experiment, which 
is not possible in kindergartens where the product 
is of more value than the learning process. Many 



* Dr. McMurry is one of the leaders of the experimental work at Teachers Colle(?e, CoKimhia University, New York 
City, and we liave here an authoritative statement of the principles that are being worked out there. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



423 



people still think that the experimental method 
is impossible, for they believe that "ends" are 
necessarily imposed, or that once they are either 
originated or imposed, the "means" becomes so 
fixed that opportunity for experimentation is 
annihilated. Is this true of the adult problem? 
Should not the problems of the child be as vital 
to him as those of the adult are to him? If we 
watch children of all ages in their undirected use 
of materials at home and out-of-doors, we find 
they are either experimenting, discovering what 
they can do with them, or working with a purpose, 
making something definite. Modern psychology 
has proved the fact that there is no difference 
in the mind-process of the adult and that of the 
child. The only difference is in the character 
of the problem. Common sense would show that 
this does not prohibit a legitimate place for imi- 
tation, for suggestion, and even for direction. 
No — there must be no tyranny of mind over 
mind. Tolerance and respect for individuality 
must be shown by the teacher, for is not a six- 
year-old child as worthy of respect as a man? 
Back of all work with children there must be 
faith in their worth. Therefore above all must 
the teacher place the center of gravity upon them, 
must she allow them to attack the problem for 
themselves, giving them first the material for free 
experimentation, that they may discover for 
themselves the possibilities and limitations of 
each. This is the only sane approach. In fact 
the "experimental method" which develops nat- 
urally into the "problematic method," — thus giv- 
ing every opportunity for the development of 
technique which comes through the growth in 
the situations themselves — IS the "perfect blend" 
of all methods of which I have already spoken. 

Outside Interests 

Let us now consider the outside interests of 
children, which furnish motive for their hand- 
work. There is the house, garden, community, 
making of toys, dressing dolls, making paper dolls, 
the seasonal interests which bring the need for 
kites, marbles, tops, boats, snow-shovels, sleds. 
Then there are festivals and parties. These 
natural conditions set the majority of children's 
problems. For instance, dolls create conditions 
out of which the problems arise. The doll needs 
a dress, hat, cap, muff, and tippet ; she needs a 
swing and a rug, a set of dishes and linen for 
table. Her house must be furnished with beds, 
chairs, and tables, the windows must be curtained 
and the beds supplied with pillows, a mattress 
and sheets, and blankets. In fact, the doll's needs 
are as great as her mistress-mother's. Therefore 
if we had doll families and doll communities in 



the kindergarten and primary, many problems 
would arise naturally and bring about creative 
and constructive work. 

Toy animals are almost as great a help in 
giving opportunity for natural childish problems 
as the doll. There must be barns, sheds, and 
fences for the toy horse and cow, pens for the 
rabbits, a fold for the sheep, etc. There must 
be wagons, carts, racks, etc., roads made and 
bridges built, for wagons open a whole field of 
possible activities, as well as trains, brooms, tubs, 
washboards, stoves, flatirons. 

Materials Suggest Problems 

Materials suggest problems to young children 
whose interest is more immediate. With them 
the mastery of the material is in itself a problem. 
As ideas grow out of the using, they in their turn 
suggest other ideas, with the result that there is 
growing definiteness, which is really the begin- 
ning of purpose. Therefore the kindergartner 
must select carefully for emphasis such material 
as can be shown to have the greatest significance. 

Children should be encouraged to experiment 
freely with paper and scissors. Old newspapers 
cut up, fringed, and folded, are excellent for this. 
The children may use these freely and not feel 
hampered, thus gaining power easily over tools 
and material. 

Outline cutting should be used very little, as 
its only value is in the technical training of eye 
and hand. Accuracy is needed most certainly, 
but not at the continual expense of creativity. 
There is no reason why original cutting should 
not give sufficient opportunity for growth in 
technique. 

A few uses of paper, which will develop from 
the child's needs or dolls', are: paper dolls, soldier 
caps, hats, flowers, pinwheels, fans, Christmas- 
tree decorations, scrapbooks. The use of paper 
in construction should be carefully watched, as 
it is with this medium that much insincere work 
has been done. Furniture that will not stand 
after it is made, and wagons which will not hold 
anything, encourage children in a deplorable use 
of material. 

Chalk and Crayon 

With chalk and crayon the teacher's part is 
to aid in the elimination of scribble and thus 
avoid an arrest of development caused by the 
child's falling into some one conventional repre- 
sentation. The range of subjects is as wide as 
the child's experience, and will include human 
figures in action, events in literature and in the 
child's own life, local occurrences, such as fires, 
parades, circuses, excursions, home-life, etc. 



424 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



Bold work should be striven for, using the side 
of the chalk for mass representation. Children 
should be given opportunity every day for large, 
free drawing. Crayons and large paper either 
fastened to the wall or used on the floor will 
give the added enjoyment of color. With the 
crayons some definite art work may be attempted, 
such as simple borders in flowers and conven- 
tional design to be applied to Industrial Arts 
work, that is, to the decoration of doilies and 
sideboard cover, rugs, wallpaper and curtains for 
the doll-house, bookcases, sun-bonnets, parasols, 
etc. 

I have heard many kindergartners say that 
they would have more drawing if it were not for 
the chalk dust. I would advise putting black- 
boards out of doors. The children will not take 
cold, as they are exercising, and the opportunity 
to work outdoors will give an added pleasure. 

Nature Materials and Textiles 

Chains of nature material may be made. There 
is an almost endless variety of them, including 
berries, nuts, seeds, reeds, hollow stems of many 
plants. Melon seeds may be dipped in various 
dyes and beautiful colors secured. Macaroni 
may be painted in the long strips and broken up 
to string between the berries. Painted bright 
orange, it makes a beautiful harmony with the 
brown of acorn cups. These strings should be 
first made for the child's own personal decoration. 
The decoration of the room comes later. Many 
mistakes have been made in this, and the child 
soon tires of such a waste of effort. If the work 
is not for him it does not count, and as there 
is no real interest, the work is consequently 
mechanical and spiritless. 

Sewing and weaving come under the head of 
textiles. The process of sewing is interesting to 
all children, but its possibilities in kindergarten 
are restricted by the fine muscular coordination 
it ordinarily demands. Whenever it is used the 
materials should be coarse, in order to insure, 
so far as possible, large, crude work. A box of 
scraps of cloth and a rag or stockinet doll for 
each child offer an excellent opportunity for 
experimentation. At first the garments are sewed 
on the dolls — ^the stitches are large and inexact — ■ 



but later the need for better garments is felt and 
a pattern is necessary, in order, as a child told me, 
"that we may not waste the cloth." Dresses are 
then made that can be put on and taken off. Win- 
ter weather suggests the need of blankets for the 
dolls" beds and cradles and the ends may be over- 
cast with worsted. Many Christmas presents, as 
sachet-bags, pincushions, dust-cloths, and holders, 
can be easily made. There are costumes to be 
planned and made for the children's plays, such 
as an Indian costume, fringed and decorated, a 
knight's costume for a tournament, which in- 
cludes a cape, shield, and plumed hat. Funny 
costumes may be developed for Hallowe'en, thus 
encouraging the children to work out something 
grotesque. Every opportunity for initiative, 
choice of materials, taste in color, and originality 
in design should be given. The projects will in- 
clude, besides those mentioned, marble bags, work 
aprons, rag and yarn dolls. Then there are the 
doll's rugs and hammock, hats, scarfs, muffs, to 
be woven on cardboard looms. As in the case 
of sewing, it is questionable whether much weav- 
ing should be attempted in the kindergarten on 
account of the prolonged effort which most 
projects require, and also because the nature of 
weaving is such that execution must be much 
more accurate than is required in any other form 
of children's work. Because of this, paper weav- 
ing should be mostly omitted. 

These are a few of the possibilities of hand 
work with young children, meeting the require- 
ments of child psychology and hygiene which, 
near to the learner's need, demand of him his 
interest, effort, and reflective thought. 

It is not so much what a child knows that 
testifies to the efficiency of a kindergarten, but 
what he is prepared to do. He must be able to 
produce real effort and power, must be able to 
carry into the school : 

First : A habit of joyous but orderly activity 
and liking for employment, and good- 
humored cooperation with the activities 
of others ; 

Second : Habits of obedience and promptness, 
and acceptance of community regulation. 

Third : A little skill in planning combinations 
and inventions with materials. 



The place of conscious direction in education ia to fur- 
nish the time, place, and materials which will draw out the 
best interests of children. — Luther H. Giilick. 



THE TREND OF THE KINDERGARTEN TO-DAY* 



BY 



PATTY SMITH HILL 



The atmosphere of freedom has inspired a num- 
ber of experiments during the last decade, 
especially along the line of better uses of kin- 
dergarten materials, the results of which we now 
submit to the public for criticism. In these we 
do not claim to have solved the problem for other 
people, or even for ourselves; but each experi- 
ment has been of great value in clearing our 
vision, in freeing ourselves from blind tradition, 
and in paving the way for other experiments. 

What Does the Child Teach Us? 

In all of the experiments the following prob- 
lems have been more or less prominently in mind : 
Among the apparently aimless and valueless 
spontaneous activities of the child is it possible 
to discover some which may be used as the point 
of departure for ends of recognized worth? Are 
there some of these crude expressions which, 
if properly directed, may develop into the begin- 
nings of the fine and industrial arts? How far 
does the preservation of the individuality and 
freedom of the child demand self-initiated activ- 
ities? Is it possible for the teacher to set prob- 
lems or ends sufficiently childlike to fit in with 
the mode of growth and to inspire their adoption 
with the same fine enthusiasm which accompanies 
the self-initiated ones? Or, better still, if the 
activities and surroundings of the kindergarten 
were more like those in real life, would problems 
arise spontaneously out of these more lifelike 
situations as they do in life? In other words, 
this problem has been studied from initiation on 
the level of impulse and spontaneity to culmina- 
tion in ideas embodied in good form. 

Using Play as Motive Power 

In our effort to answer some of these questions, 
experiments have indicated that the play-motive, 
when utilized in the production of toys, has 
seemed to offer problems which the children im- 
mediately recognize as their own, thus meeting 
the standard of worth from the standpoint of 
the child and the teacher. With the older chil- 
dren it has made a very happy transition from 
the more or less haphazard and short-lived pur- 
suit of ends which is characteristic of play, pure 



and simple, to the voluntary persistence in solv- 
ing more distant problems required in the begin- 
nings of creative work and industry. Here the 
motive of the child is to meet his own play-needs, 
but the process of production involves the recog- 
nition of a problem which to be solved requires 
persistent experimental attempts to discover ways 
and means related to the end desired. The self- 
effort of the children is marked, and their atten- 
tion unwavering. It might be described as the 
attitude and processes of creative work permeated 
with the spirit of play. 

Doll-Play Imitates Real Life 

In this way the child's introduction to industry 
corresponds with that of the race, in that he is 
learning to produce through his own efforts the 
objects which promote the welfare of his social 
life. The dolls and doll families are of inesti- 
mable value, as the children voluntarily center 
their productions around the needs of the doll 
families and communities. The needs of the 
dolls, while "make-believe" from our adult point 
of view, are to the children almost identical with 
those in real life — food, clothing, shelter, etc.; 
and the ways and means of supplying these in 
play-life offer the same motives and opportunities 
for creative work which they inspired under the 
grim and more pressing conditions in the race. 
The children became so absorbed in the reality 
of this motive that they voluntarily planned a 
series of occupations for themselves, not only 
for the day, but in some cases for a week in 
advance. 

At other times their own out-of-door play 
necessities have furnished the motive for the 
production of marbles, tops, kites, wagons, etc. 
Or, again, some real need in the kindergarten or 
the home has suggested the type of production ; 
for example, making crude little work-aprons 
to protect their clothes when modeling, painting, 
or when washing the kindergarten dishes. 

The Teacher as Welder 

In occupations of this nature, the teacher's 
problem is in guiding the children's productions 
through an ascending scale of difficulty which will 



* Miss Hill, who gave her cordial permission to the condensation of her article, is no doubt the leading American 
kindergartner to-day. Her statements as to the ways in which Play is being used as a motive-power in the Horace 
Mann School kindergarten are most significant. * 



426 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



insure continuous progress in technique or con- 
trol over materials. While kindergartners of an 
early day were enslaved by a narrow conception 
and scheme of sequence which was utterly foreign 
to the nature of the child and to life, the ideal is 
an important one, and may easily be overlooked 
or undervalued. If a teacher recognizes the im- 
portance of a continuous advance in the mastery 
of technique and materials, she will find that if 
the children are thrown upon their own resources 
in discovering solutions for themselves they will 
probably produce a fairly good attempt, repre- 
senting their maximum skill; or they become 
conscious of their need for guidance or sugges- 
tion, which ofifers her the opportunity for leading 
them to better ways and means, or to a more 
adequate form of expression. 

The "What" and the "How" 

These points have been kept in the foreground 
of our consciousness through one and all of the 
experiments, namely, that there must be free- 
dom somewhere. — ample room left for choices, 
and provisions made for the child to make his 
own judgments and decisions. For example, if 
the child initiates the "what" of his production, 
the teacher's part may be to hold herself in readi- 
ness to offer suggestions as to the "how," the 
best ways and means; or, if the teacher has sug- 
gested the problem, aim, or end, she must throw 
the children on their own resources to discover 
ways of arriving at the end. It has often been 
evident that when the children are intelligent as 
to what end they are striving to accomplish, they 
are set free from any undue dependence on the 
teacher for either dictation or detail of direction. 
The problem to be solved, the end to be attained, 
dominates them, and the teacher falls into the 
background. 

Froebel Not InfalHble 

While Froebel's materials and methods have 
been respectfully studied to find the best in them, 
the materials used have not been limited to these 
or in any way bound by them. Careful studies 
and experiments have been made with a variety 
of educational materials, including not only those 
of Froebel and Montessori, but any good toys 
and play materials, including those from Nature 
and those of recognized merit in the field of the 
fine and industrial arts. The results of these 
experiments have been compared, and those 
materials selected, irrespective of tradition, which 
have proved of greatest worth. 



Froebel Forgot Dolls 

Free use has been made of the doll and doll 
families, as they seem to furnish one of the most 
natural motives to work and play with materials. 
In the simplest sense of the word, the doll is the 
symbol of humanity, and as man and man's needs, 
aesthetic, domestic, and industrial, have been the 
incentive to all good production in the domestic, 
fine, and industrial arts in society, past and pres- 
ent, so the dolls, which represent humanity in the 
play life of the child, have proved to be a most 
natural incentive to production. It seems strange 
that the doll has been so largely overlooked or 
undervalued in the kindergarten, when its neces- 
sity and importance in the play life in the home 
is as old as childhood and motherhood. Froebel, 
who was the first to see the educational value 
in otlier toys of universal significance — such as 
balls and blocks, — at one time seemed on the eve 
of recognizing the doll in his scheme of play 
materials. However, his own personal absorp- 
tion in geometry and mathematical relations 
crowded it into the background, so that instead 
of being central in the play-materials in the kin- 
dergarten, it has been an adjunct, an afterthought, 
or an occasional visitor. In one place, he seems 
to see the doll as the symbol of humanity in 
child life, as he poetically refers to it as a "play 
child." Fortunately, it is not only a play child, 
but it is equally effective as a play mother, a play 
father, a play baby, symbolizing in turn all mem- 
bers of the human family. 

Blocks to Build Backgrounds 

We have introduced some blocks, which are 
much larger than those of Froebel or Montessori, 
for use on the floor and in group work. These 
are related as far as being based upon a unit of 
measurement is considered. They provide boards 
— a long-felt need in the constructive materials of 
the kindergarten — with which the children can 
construct bridges, floors, and houses sufficiently 
large for the children to get in, play "Lady-come- 
to-see" or store, to their heart's content. 

It is sincerely believed that the time has come 
when all materials and methods must be carefully 
investigated and those selected which prove to 
be of actual worth in the development of the 
kindergarten child, whether they be those planned 
by Froebel, Montessori, or their follov;ers, many 
of whom are striving to hold fast to that which 
is good, while pressing forward in the endless 
quest for the better — the best — the ideal. 



THE KINDERGARTEN AT HORACE MANN SCHOOL, 
TEACHERS COLLEGE* 



BY 



JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON 



ImacixK yourself going to scliool and being asked 
what you would like to do. The old way was to 
tell the pupil what he must do. and especially 
what he must not do. But it is the natural way 
to learn by doing, even if one does try something 
at first rather beyond his powers. 

"Why," replied a youngster in one of the pre- 
primary grades at the Horace Mann School, "I 
think I would like to build a Woolworth Build- 
ing." 

"Would you like to begin to-day?" asked the 
teacher. 

'■Right away, if I can do it before lunch." 

The boy was directed to a large pile of wooden 
beams, each four feet in length and about three 
inches square. They had interlocking devices to 
hold them together. As the schoolroom was only 
fifteen feet high, the tower which was soon being 
reared was not a full-scale skyscraper to the 
adult mind. It was the real thing, though, to the 
youthful architect. He soon found that he needed 
help, and he was joined by four or five other 
lads of that impossible school. Foot by foot the 
fabric was reared, and once in a while the teacher 
strolled up to see how the construction was 
progressing. The first story was as high as the 
builders, and so, after a good deal of talk, they 
left a hole in its roof, which was the floor of 
the second story that was to be, so they could 
crawl up through the aperture and lay the courses 
for the rising walls. 

The third floor meant a dizzy height for the 
age of five or six, and it required a firm will to 
work in those upper airs. At last came the peak 
of a tower where slanting beams were raised 
high aloft. Down among the tables stood a boy 
who had been a timid spectator. He was strug- 
gling with a great purpose. At last he screwed 
his courage to the sticking point and crawled 
into the awesome structure and wriggled to the 
very top floor. There he sat down with a sigh of 
triumph and relief. He had done it. His fear 
of high places had been trampled under foot. 

In the erection of that pile there had been also 
the building of character. First there had been 
instilled in the mind of the pioneer a spirit of 



initiative. He had thought that he would like 
to do something on his own account. Finding 
that his own strength was not equal to the task, 
he had sent forth his call for aid, and those who 
joined him thus learned the value of cooperation. 
The youngster who followed in their wake, like 
some young Hercules, had strangled the serpeiit 
of timidity. 

The foundation stones of the new education 
and of the good citizenship which this youngest 
generation is expected to reach by the new method 
are just such qualities as these, which are con- 
sidered of far more account than anything which 
can be learned from books or worked out by rule 
of thumb. The youngsters who built the sky- 
scraper had first of all learned the properties of 
things: they had mastered the social ideals of 
cooperation, and had developed personal self- 
reliance. They had made plans and had executed 
them. 

But what of the "Three R's" ? You may say 
that the boys and girls of Do-As- You-'Please- 
Hall are really not learning anything. Fourth 
in importance in the scale of the new education 
come the "school arts," such as reading, writing, 
arithmetic. Let us go back to the skyscraper and 
perhaps we may find them somewhere in the 
cornerstone. 

The architect and his helpers, in order to get 
the stories the same height, were obliged to count 
the timbers of the wall. They absorbed arith- 
metic without knowing it. It was necessary to 
have the name of the building put upon its front. 
But these youngsters, much as they wished to 
have the inscription, were weak in orthography 
and chirography. Over in one corner was a tray 
filled with A B C's, little and big, carved on 
printing blocks. The entire crew, with a little 
help from the teacher, assembled the name in 
a line of type. The first attempt lacked an "o" 
in the first syllable, but the final tablet pasted 
to the building just above the imposing entrance 
was correctly spelled. 

Reading, writing, and arithmetic had come to 
those youngsters in the heat of achievement. 
Now that the building was done, why not make 



* From The New York Times. 
K.N.— 29 



427 



428 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



some more lobels ? There were so many things 
about the room that had interesting names, such 
as chalk, pencils, brushes, paints. These were 
more convenient to use if each kind were kept 
in a box by itself. It would be best, in that case, 
to have a label on each box. Therefore, more 
scrambling among the type, more reading and 
spelling, and the labels were duly made. 

Although, at first blush, one might think that 
this school is a haphazard institution, the teacher 
is at every point directing and overseeing the 
tasks which the pupils have chosen for them- 
selves. The child, on reaching the classes in the 
morning, is permitted to help itself to whatever 
material it wishes. It may model in clay or nail 
a box or make a wagon or paste up a scrapbook. 
Whatever it does has in it the 'urge of a personal 
interest. Some of us may remember periods in 
our lives when we took up the flying of kites, or 
the hunting for Indian arrowheads in the fields, 
and in the kindling enthusiasm of that time we 
grasped the principles of aeronautics, archc-eology, 
and of geology, sciences with mouth-filling names 
of which we did not even hear until later years. 

If the boys and girls who go to this school 
of the new order are guided aright in their build- 
ing of houses and in the making of automobiles 
and fire engines out of wooden beams and wheels, 
the theory is that they will develop correct and 
accurate habits of thought. 

The more formal things required in an educa- 
tion can be added. There is no laborious drilling 
in the alphabet ; nothing is said about the multipli- 
cation table : and there is no endless repetition 
of words and phrases which the child-mind can 
not grasp. When the youngster makes houses, 
airplanes, submarines, or tea, he is acquiring skill 
in the use of tools and paste and dishes. 

These children get their own meals. The 
teacher does not tell them about it, but along 
about noontime they begin to feel hungry, and 
someone says, "Let's get lunch." The ones who 
like domestic duties the most attend to that. 
They spread the tables and bring out the dishes 
and see that the chairs are placed. Initiative, 



cooperation, and a desire for service all have 
their places in this play, and the school arts come 
in when the bill of fare is printed and there is 
a counting of knives and forks and spoons. 

For the last two years there has been much 
discussion in educational circles about the dis- 
continuance of the word kindergarten. The old 
name still appears in the catalogue of Teachers 
College, of which the Horace Mann School is a 
division. The new movement in juvenile educa- 
tion is radically different from the Froebel idea 
of the kindergarten. It harks back to the original 
conception of the brilliant French-Swiss thinker 
Rousseau. 

When Froebel served with Pestalozzi, when 
that distinguished educator was working out the 
ideas of Rousseau's "Emile," he grasped com- 
paratively little of the spirit of the work. His 
kindergarten, as he called it, meant literally a 
garden in which children were raised like plants. 
He invented his ponderous system of gifts and 
of applied play. The children were taught to 
act and to think in unison. In the average kin- 
dergarten the pupils are assembled about the table 
at the same time, and each child is set to work 
cutting or pasting or modeling in the same way 
that every one else is doing. The system at 
Horace Mann, as put into practice by Miss 
Patty Smith Hill, in charge of these pre-primary 
grades, gives scope to the talents of every pupil. 
Instruction in some of the pre-primary grades 
begins with the age of four years. 

No one would think, on entering the school- 
room where this kind of instruction is given, that 
he was in a schoolroom. He sees a group of 
children, each one of whom is earnestly doing 
what he likes. It takes some time to realize that 
these youngsters who are playing games of their 
own choice are teaching themselves reading, writ- 
ing, and arithmetic through occupations for which 
they have a natural aptitude. 

In this way, modern education removes the old 
obstacles which blocked the path of self-deter- 
mination, and gives to every child a full oppor- 
tunity to develop its individuality. 



A good part of kindergarten education should be devoted 
to the gaining of new experience through first-hand contact 
with nature, and with human activities. We are often guiUy 
of singing about these, dramatizing them, relating stories of 
them, or expressing them through hand work, when what is 
needed is not the expression of these but the actual experi- 
ence itself. — Patty Smith Hill. 



FROEBEL AND THE KINDERGARTEN OF TO-DAY* 



BY 



G. STANLEY HALL, LL.D. 



What, now, are some of the great ideas which 
the educational world owes in whole or in part to 
Froebel ? I think they may be listed as follows: 

Froebel's Nine Great Ideas 

1. He was the first to teach that the child re- 
peats the history of the race, recapitulating its 
stages. 

2. Feeling and instinct are the germs of intel- 
lect and the will. 

3. Froebel taught self-activity and spontaneity, 
and that play was one of the great revealers of 
the direction of inherent interest and capacity. 
He first saw that if the play instincts are turned 
on as the great motive power in school, far more 
can be accomplished, and that more easily .and 
with less strain. 

4. He was in the true apostolic succession of 
those great souls whose lives were expanded 
and directed by a sense that in God we live, 
move, and have our being. 

5. He believed in the original soundness and 
wholeness of human nature, and hence abhorred 
all interfering, or radically reconstructing, meth- 
ods of education, but thought the latter should 
be always developmental. 

6. Almost as a corollary of the first statement, 
he exhorted that every child should be at each 
stage of his life all that that stage called for. 

7. We must all live for and with the children. 
Indeed, what else is there in all this world worth 
living, working, dying for? 

8. The child, he said, is a seed in the ground, 
which does not see the sun or feel the rain di- 
rectly, but is not unresponsive to every change 
of temperature, moisture, or light. "The un- 
consciousness of a child is rest in God." This 
saying alone shows that Froebel's standpoint was 
not inferior to that of Wordsworth in his famous 
Ode, and that he dimly foresaw the work that 
has been done lately on that part of the soul 
which lies below the threshold of consciousness, 
but from its unfathomable depths rules all our 
life. 

9. Lastly, I shall mention Froebel's belief in 
health. The child is a plant, a vegetable, and 
must, as I said above, live out of doors or in as 



nearly out-of-door conditions as possible. He 
realized that health was the basis and test of all, 
and was one of the morning stars of the new 
hygiene. 

Again, Froebel was the morning star of the 
child-study movement, and would have rejoiced 
to see its day. 

The Mistake of Literally Imitating Froebel 

The most decadent intellectual new departure 
of the conservative American Froebelists, how- 
ever, is the emphasis now laid upon the mother- 
plays, as the acme of kindergarten wisdom. 

These are represented by very crude poems, 
indifferent music, and pictures — the like of which 
were never seen in any art exhibit — illustrating 
certain incidents of child life believed to be of 
fundamental and typical significance. I have read 
these in German and in English, have strummed 
the music, and have given a brief course of lec- 
tures from the sympathetic standpoint, trying to 
put all the new wine of meaning I could think 
of into them. But I am driven to the conclusion 
that, if they are not positively unwholesome and 
harmful for the child, and productive of anti- 
scientific and unphilosophical intellectual habits 
in the teacher, they should, nevertheless, be super- 
seded by the far better things now available. 

Another cardinal error of the conservative 
kindergarten is the intensity of its devotion to 
the gifts and occupations. In devising these, 
Froebel showed much sagacity ; but the scheme 
as it left his own hands was a very inadequate 
embodiment of his educational ideas, even for 
his own time. He thought it a perfect grammar 
of play and an alphabet of industries; and in this 
opinion he was utterly mistaken. Play and in- 
dustry were then relatively undeveloped: and 
while his devices were no doubt beneficent for 
the peasant children in the country, whom he 
taught, they lead, compared to the interests of 
the modern city child, a very pallid, unreal life. 
For the symbolic method that finds everything 
in everything, any random selections could readily 
be made the center of an imposing set of ex- 
planations. 



• From "Educational Problems, by G. Stanley Hall. Used by permission of the publishers, D. Appleton and Company, 
New York. 

429 



430 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



There Are Better Materials than Froebel's 

The great faults of the gifts and occupations, 
however, are not only that there are hundreds 
of other things that would do as well ; but I am 
convinced that two or three score could easily 
be found that possess great natural advantages 
over most, if not all, of these. Moreover, they 
deal with inanimate objects and too mathematical 
conceptions, while this is the age when the child's 
interest in animals culminates, and when his 
character is pregnant with moral suggestions as 
well as with scientific interests. They are also 
over-emphasized; and idolatry of the ball, cube, 
slats, pricking, peawork, and the rest makes the 
kindergartner not only indifferent to new de- 
partures in the rapid development of recent times, 
but so suspicious of novelties that new gifts or 
occupations have to overcome a great presump- 
tion against them. The schemes of analyzing to 
a point and then developing from it are fantastic 
and superficial ; and it is persistently forgotten 
that the meanings, seen or claimed, exist solely 
for the teacher and not at all for the child. 

Much of the work involves a great waste of 
teaching, with great effort to inculcate early 
what will later come naturally and better of 
itself. The drawing of the kindergarten children 
thus tends to be wooden ; and its introduction 
into the curriculum is to invert the order of Na- 
ture, which prompts the child to draw complex 
scenes, with animals and men in motion first, with 
never a straight line, circle, or mathematical 
angle until much later. The sins of this intro- 
duction of regular mathematical forms against 
both the artistic sense and power of execution, 
which can be laid to the door of the kindergarten, 
are many and great. Moreover, as administered, 
the occupations tend to overwork the children, 
to interest them and the parents in the products 
of the little school factory, and to lay too great 
stress on sedentary activities and the finer and 
later developed accessory muscles. 

Kindergartens Should Have More Outdoors 

In direct contradiction to all this, Froebel be- 
lieved the child should live out of doors; would 
give each child a flower-bed that he might have 
access to Mother Earth; emphasized the need of 
abundant and healthful activity for the whole 
body, and understood the hygienic necessities of 
leisure. We forget that the very definition of 
school means leisure; that the child must have 
it in great abundance ; and that he must be pro- 
tected and shielded from the activities of the 
great world; so that Nature and heredity — an 
ounce of which is worth tons of education — can 



get in their work. Quiet, rest, sleep, lethargy, 
and, above all, day-dreaming, are essential ; and 
he must have a strong cause who would interfere 
with Nature's operations. 

The nursery element, now often so abhorred, 
must be greatly emphasized in our kindergartens. 
Some factors of the now admirable education 
of nurses should be introduced by a competent 
medical instructor in all the training-schools. 

Great improvements are entirely practicable. 

Desirable Kindergarten Activities 

A few things I shall venture to indicate. The 
body must be strengthened. The activities should 
involve more body movements, and the strain 
upon the hand and eye should be reduced. The 
very high educational value of dancing should 
be exploited even more than it is. It cadences 
the soul as almost nothing else does. Building 
should be done with much larger blocks. Catch- 
ing, throwing, and lifting plays and games should 
be selected from Mr. Johnson's or some other 
convenient repertoire. Imitation, or "do-as-I-do" 
activities, should have a larger place. Bean-bags, 
and, if there were room, perhaps the hoop, the 
jumping-rope, and the kite may have some place. 

Certainly the doll, with all its immense educa- 
tional power, should be carefully introduced. 
Much might be said in favor of the color top. 
peg board, soap bubbles, and such old plays as 
jackstraws and knuckle-bones. All the contents 
of the toy shop should always be studied and 
used. Sorting out heterogeneous blocks and 
cards, and laying like to like, might be tried; 
while play with chalk, shells, spools, and pictures 
should be carefully developed; always remember- 
ing that the child's interest in animals culminates 
before its interest in flowers or trees, and that 
the latter reaches its apex before interest in in- 
animate things. 

Emphasize Language 

The kindergarten should do much more for 
language, on the basis of what we now know 
of child linguists, not only for the voice in train- 
ing to speak freely and well, but for the vocabu- 
larv. It is important that the teacher's voice be 
attractive, well modulated, her words well chosen, 
her English correct, her linguistic resources ample 
and fertile; but still more important is it that the 
child should here be taught expression. The 
over-voluble may occasionally need repression ; 
but most children do not talk enough in the kin- 
dergarten. Again, whenever practicable, living, 
foreign languages should be taught in the upper 
grades of kindergartens by a native teacher to 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



431 



those children who are likely to study them later 
in connection with every activity. 

Everything that is done or seen should, in 
short, be reflected in language. It should not, 
however, be the stupid concert work common in 
the kindergarten, but free personal conversation 
with each child. To see a picture or handle an 
object while talking about it greatly aids the 
power of expression, not only in our own but in 
a foreign language ; so that it should be a rule 
to confine such conversation as closely as pos- 
sible, word for word, at least to the picture, if 
not to the object and to the act. 

Standard stories with myths should be told 
more; and perhaps this ought to be the central 
thing, or, at least, next to activity. Not only 
Grimm and ^sop, but some of the Old Testa- 
ment tales, tales from Homer, etc., can be told 
at the kindergarten age in a most effective way by 
a sympathetic teacher. Story-telling ought to be 
a profession ; and if I could examine kinder- 
garten teachers I should regard the test in this 
respect as second to none in importance. The 
same story can be repeated. This is the primeval 
way of education; thus all culture was trans- 
mitted before books. Animal tales, perhaps acted 
out, stories of savage life, of fancy, something 
of the fairies, with games like hide-and-seek — 
and a vast amount of such work in great variety 
— should be included. 

Emphasize Music 

Music should be looked upon as indispensable 
and made even more prominent. Most of the 
new music I believe to be cheap and unworthy 
of the child. The old ballads and songs of Na- 
ture, God, home, and country educate the senti- 
ments in ways we have never known. There is 
much to be said in favor of the violin instead of 
the piano. The teacher should sing and a great 
deal of music should be heard. Froebel's stand- 
ard can here be greatly transcended. Occasional 
whistling would, of course, be admirable. Songs 
with action are important here — bad as they are 
later — for the development of the voice. There 
is something in the cake-walk — which seems to 
be the very apotheosis of human love antics — 
that could be utilized for older children, who 
might be encouraged to act a part and begin to 
indulge that great instinct of assuming an alien 
personality with the aid of costumes, disguises, 
and masks. Children appreciate poetry with 
alliteration and even slang in it, which has its 
partial justification; and the sequence and con- 
tinuity, identity and contrast, which are so much 
insisted on, are utterly alien as principles to the 
child mind at this animistic age 



Effective Building Activities 

Among other things, it would be quite germane 
to an ideal kindergarten to have a stone and a 
woodyard, where many stones of as diverse kinds, 
shapes, color, qualities, etc., as possible, should be 
accumulated, including a load of smooth, varie- 
gated pebbles from the beach; and from these 
up to sizes that the children would have to exert 
themselves to lift or even to roll. There should 
be a level space for them to pile the stones into 
tiny chairs or cromlechs. There should be also a 
generous collection of small boards, large wooden 
blocks, slats, etc., etc., but entirely without slivers. 
Here children might indulge their primitive in- 
stincts to construct, using material heavy enough 
to exercise the larger muscles. They could assort 
them by size, color, shape, smoothness, etc. It 
would be well also if there were characteristic 
bits of ore and minerals — marble, glass wdthout 
too sharp edges, and even coal, and a few 
of the more common or easily obtainable fossils 
and arrowheads. The children might occasionally 
be shown the many clever things that can be 
done, and not too much protected so that there 
would never be any bruises or petty accidents. 
Thus the propensity to build, classify, exercise 
the esthetic taste, work, develop the strong mus- 
cles, learn something about minerals, mines, 
rocks, mountains, could be gained and developed 
by talks and model exercises. Some stones could 
be named and tales told of the Mythic and Stone 
Ages, and some rudiments of what will later be- 
come of interest in lithology could be developed by 
lessons from the rocks. Such a stone and wood- 
yard in a school could teach many invaluable 
lessons and stimulate tendencies. For the older 
children, there could be joined framework, boards, 
and other material to be put together without 
nails into houses large enough for the children 
to get into and enjoy, and then taken down and 
reconstructed. There should, of course, also be 
bricks for building as well as stones. 

Snow as Plastic Material 

Snow in its season is as valuable for construc- 
tive play as sand and clay, and is more plastic. 
Young children should be insured a good deal 
of experience with molding snowballs and vari- 
ous other figures, making snow-men, fortsi im- 
printing their own figure in it, making pictures 
and letters, mapping out cart-wheels and other 
patterns for games, digging and tunneling in 
drifts, rolling and leaping in it, etc. Snow has 
pedagogic possibilities that are not yet realized. 
The kind of play it prompts is under the very 



432 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



best conditions, for the ground is padded and 
cushioned and so incites to new motor activities. 
The analysis of snow air shows it to be the purest 
from germs, most prophylactic and stimulating, 
while the cold adds its wondrous tonic, sending 
the blood inward to stimulate all the vital organs, 
and then by reaction bringing it to the surface 
again in the most healthful way. Thus a snow 
field is on the .whole a better environment for 
play, and a more tonic kind of play than even 
a grassy lawn. 

Base All on Child Study 

Froebel said, "Wouldst thou lead the child . . . 
observe him and he will show thee what to do," 
and yet we can not and must not forget that a 
dark cloud of ignorance hangs over the kinder- 
garten age. Some scores of individual studies 
have been made upon infants from liirth on. often 
up to the third year, and collective studies of 
children from the beginning of the school age 



on are far more common. But the child of from 
about two and a half or three to five or six years 
of age is relatively unknown to science. Of no 
stage of human life do we know so little. The 
most sagacious and practical kindergartners in 
this country now base their views upon native, 
wpmanly intuition into the nature and needs of 
this metamorphic age. But none of us can prove 
ourselves right by citing more than two or three 
studies of this period. Till there are such data 
we must go on by the same methods of tact and 
sympathy that have prevailed ever since savagery 
in the training of children, with only the addi- 
tional light that progress in other fields reflects 
into this obscure region. With so much ability 
and enthusiasm and so many methods now in 
operation it would seem that it needs but a touch 
of intelligent direction to redeem this rank, rich 
field for scientific pedagogy, for none is so in- 
viting, so ripe, so certain of yielding, under 
proper cultivation, such precious results both for 
science and for education. 



WHAT HAS THE AMERICAN KINDERGARTEN TO 
LEARN FROM MONTESSORI?* 



BY 



WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK, Pii.D. 



Madam Montessori allies herself most commend- 
ably with the scientific aim and attitude as the 
only rule of educational faith and practice. Her 
practice is not so praiseworthy. In the opinion 
of those competent to judge, her biology is gen- 
erally bad, while her psychology, as we shall 
later say, is not abreast of the best. Montessori 
has, then, the spirit but not the content of mod- 
ern science. 

In the matter of "practical life" activities, these 
are already found in many kindergartens. Mon- 
tessori stresses this idea, and modern education 
would approve her emphasis. An adaptation to 
American conditions is, however, necessary in 
the utilization of her activities. 

For many years the proper curriculum for the 



young child has been much discussed. Froebel 
expected some geometry and arithmetic, but little 
or no reading or writing. The kindergarten has, 
as a rule, taught no reading and writing, and but 
little of number or geometry. Madam Montes- 
sori. however, expects her work to culminate in 
the three R's; and her apparent success has been 
widely discussed. In arithmetic, it may be dog- 
matically stated, there is no contribution for 
America. Her reading-method depends on the 
phonetic Italian language ; and when separated 
therefrom has no new suggestion for us. The 
writing is beautiful, and may contain suggestions 
of value to us, though the matter is not certain. 
It is quite another question whether the kinder- 
garten should wish to take up the three R's. 



«»,P »f. ,h^ fir<» wnVn, °- iTf \°'l '" ^'^'^W" '^^"r ,^'1^" '^^ "^"^^^ ""^ ''^""•'s degree at the University of Rome 
rt^ ZJ.htU l\- ■ ,", " ^^"-^ to become a Doctor of Medicine. After graduation she was appointed on the staff of 
S tfi? Jlv^loLd ?h f .u" .""'X"S''>,. aid ,n the course of her duties became interested in feeble-minded children. Out 
rn„l^^.„H ,h=f fl,i ,.Ii" J''' ^'■""'^^''^™'.<^'"'l"'''' .'^'^'Idren, which she conducted in person from 1898 to 1900. Becoming 
she e.nrnpH.o ,!,,?,• .•f%'''''"''T'' ^l"" ^"^^^"rmM children would be even more useful with normal children 
tnnltv ^n cn„ne.H^^ un vers.ty to . cont.nuc her studies ,n philosophy and pedagogy. In 1907 she was given the oppor: 
tunity, m connection with he .Society for Good Suilding m Rome, to open a d.Ty-nursery school, which she called the 
,She kept this connection until 1911. Since then sh.^ has continued her experiments with older chil- 

-- .,1 



House of Childhood 
d 



in AnierL imder tbe V^fJ-Th M°"V"''" ""^'i'^i- J'""" J? ^"'"^^ '""^ '" America. Her anthorit.itivc book is published 
'"Montessori Svstem Fv-,mfn,d" Montessori Method " , Her work has been critically studied bv Kilpatrick in his 
svmn.iheHc bn^f iT n;r^r„'r c"*^^ P u ^P^'^.. ^'\,^'^ ^'■''^ ^ocke to Montessori." To the layman the most useful 
sympathetic book is Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "A Montessori Mother." 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



433 



There is, at present, no scientific basis for a final 
answer. A school without books is Froebel's 
everlasting glory. 

Her Doctrine of Liberty 

The doctrine of liberty is the most interesting 
of the Montessori doctrines. Froebel professed 
it, but in practice we have too often had dicta- 
tion instead. The kindergartner has a detailed 
program; and the children have been directed 
therein by suggestion, seldom by force. The 
freedom has been narrow, limited to the exi- 
gencies of the teacher-made program. Montes- 
sori, on the other hand, has no such detailed 
program. During the long period set aside for 
the use of the apparatus, the child chooses, practi- 
cally ad libitum, how he will spend the time. 
The director keeps herself distinctly in the back- 
ground. Yet there is no anarchy; on the con- 
trary, there is vigorous activity along the proper 
lines. 

The social cooperation and conformity in the 
kindergarten are mainly secured by the teacher's 
interposition and direction. In the Montessori 
school, however, they are secured by the volun- 
tary action of the children. The freedom in the 
Montessori schools presents a definite challenge 
to most American kindergartens. The child must 
be given a chance to exercise real choice and real 
self-direction. While Montessori allows freer in- 
dividual choice than Froebel, the range of choice 
is much more limited. Play as such is little en- 
couraged. In particular, there must be no playing 
with the didactic material. Games are not much 
in evidence, and those found are inferior to those 
of the American kindergarten. Stories have no 
place — a lamentable defect. There is little utili- 
zation of the imagination. Drawing and model- 
ing play but small part. The freedom of the 
Montessori school, to prove most useful, must be 
united with the variety of the kindergarten. 

As a guide to the freedom allowed. Madam 
Montessori seeks to utilize the principle of auto- 
education — a scheme whereby the school exer- 
cises set their own problems and themselves 
correct all errors. The aim is admirable, but as 
here presented, the practice is limited in both 
scope and value. So mechanical an auto-educa- 
tion can have value only on some theory of formal 
discipline. 

Her Scheme of Sense-Training 

Perhaps even more than the liberty of the 
Montessori system has its scheme of sense-train- 
ing found praise. An adequate discussion of 
this topic is not easy. There are at least three 



positions as to sense-training. The first says 
that the sense-organ as such can be improved 
so that one sees with a better eye, for example, 
much as one might look through an improved 
telescope. To this theory, two other groups say 
no. These agree that the eye sees more things 
because fuller meanings have been attached to 
distinctions all the while optically visible. 

Which theory is correct? Has Cooper's In- 
dian a better eye than the scholar? Or is it that 
the former has learned to note significances in 
the things of the forest that lie out of the latter's 
experience? To test whether it be eye or attached 
meaning, bring the Indian into the scholar's 
library. Show him these two pages, one of 
French, one of Latin. What says the Indian? 
"They are both alike, meaningless marks," but a 
glance tells the bookman that he sees different lan- 
guages. They see and note different significances. 

So far theories two and three agree, and they 
are right as opposed to the first. But now they 
differ. Number two says that the eye trained 
to discriminate in one line will discriminate 
wherever seeing is needed. The child trained 
to observe birds will, for that reason, observe 
the finer trees and styles of houses. In other 
words, number two believes that the child has 
general powers or faculties of discrimination, of 
observation, of memory, etc. ; and that any train- 
ing in any of these fields trains the faculty so 
that it may be used anywhere else. To this 
position, number three says no. There are no 
such general powers or faculties; training is 
specific, not general, and modern psychology 
decides in favor of number three. 

Consider now the application of these three 
theories. If one believed in either of the first 
two, he would be more concerned in the exercise 
of the organ or faculty than in the value of the 
content thereby gained. The third theory, how- 
ever, would ask, Is this child making distinctions 
that are going to prove useful? Is this child 
getting desirable sense-qualities? 

Where now stands Madam Montessori? "It 
is exactly in the repetition of the exercises that 
the education of the senses consists : their aim 
is not that the child shall know colors, forms, 
and the different qualities of objects, but that he 
refine his senses." 

The slightest examination of the didactic ap- 
paratus and the most casual reading of the ex- 
position of its use shows that Madam Montessori 
meant to base t-he usefulness of the apparatus 
predominantly upon an erroneous theory of sense- 
training, whether of the first or second is not 
always clear. We accordingly reject the didactic 
material as being practically worthless; and de- 



434 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



nounce its preferred sense-training as largely a 
snare. 

Summary and Lessons 

To summarize: 

1. We fear the introduction of reading and 
writing into the kindergarten period. There is 
no real need for them. They may do harm. At 
any rate, we can hope for little or no help in the 
matter from Montessori. 

2. In the utilization of play, of the constructive 
interests,' of stories and the' imagination, we feel 
that Froebel and the best American kinder- 
gartners are far superior to the Montessori theory 
and practice. 

3. Montessori's systematic sense-training through 
the didactic material we reject as being based on 
an indefensible psychology. Montessori's theory 
was rejected on sufficient grounds, both in America 



and in Germany, years before she had entered 
our horizon. 

4. But a curriculum for the kindergarten period 
based on concrete experiences we most heartily 
approve. We think, however, that certain Ameri- 
can writers (notably Dr. Dewey), have given 
us ideas far superior to those of both Froebel 
and Montessori. 

5. The "practical life" activities of Madam 
Montessori — with appropriate modifications — we 
welcome. It is a fight we have for some years 
been waging. 

6. The real, individual freedom in the Montes- 
sori schools we recognize as their best achieve- 
ment. If we can so utilize the extraordinary 
publicity given to the working of these schools 
to loosen the joints of our school practice from 
the kindergarten upward, we shall willingly ac- 
knowledge the service. 



MAKING THE ORIGINAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 
INTO SOMETHING ELSE* 



EDWARD L. THORNDIKE, Pn.D. 



As THE potter must know his clay, the musician 
his instrument, or as the general must know the 
raw recruits out of whom he hopes to make a 
disciplined force, so education has to reckon with 
unlearned tendencies. To change men's wants 
for the better, we must heed what conditions 
originally satisfy and annoy them, since the only 
way to create an interest is by grafting it on 
to one of the original satisfiers. To enable men 
to satisfy their wants more fully, the crude 
curiosity, manipulation, experimentation and ir- 
rational interplay of fear, anger, rivalry, mastery, 
submission, cruelty, and kindliness must be modi- 
fied into useful, verified thought and equitable 
acts. 

Problems in Making Human Pottery 

The task of education is to make the best use 
of this original fund of tendencies, eradicating 
its vicious^ elements, wasting the least possible 



of value that Nature gives, and .supplying at the 
most useful time the additions that are needed 
to improve and satisfy human wants. If the 
response is sought too early, effort is wasted; if 
it is sought too late, the effort may fail altogether. 
It is further complicated by the discords between 
the behavior to which original nature prompts and 
the behavior which the welfare of man in his 
present civilized state requires. Man's original 
equipment dates far back and adapts him, directly, 
only for such a life as might be led by a family 
group of wild men among the brute forces of 
land, water, storm and sun, fruits and berries, 
animals and other family groups of wild men. 
But man has created a new world, in which his 
original nature is often at a loss and against which 
it often rebels. 

Making Over to Fit Life 

Some original tendencies should be cherished 
almost as they are. Some must be rooted out of 



publi'slferr "^''"""'"'•" ^y '^''"^'■'' T- Thorndike. published by the Macmillan Company; reprinted by permission of the 

eAy,cltnl\TrlkiceV'^flhMy^^^^^^^ "'■• Thorndike, whose influence to-day upon 

cuuiduondi practice is proDaniy greater than that of any other mdividua This orieinal nature thesi- "nrioinal «at;«fi^r« " 
as be calls them elsewhere, are, as he says in this .section, what the clay is t. the noUe original satishers. 



What we parents wish to knnw is, what to dn with this human clay, how much of it 
must dLscatd, and in what forms to mold it. This brief article sums up his philosopby,- 



we can use, how much, if any, we 
-PV. B. F. 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



435 



children — by withholding the situations that would 
call them forth, so that they die a natural death 
from lack of exercise ; or by making their exer- 
cise result in pain and discomfort ; or by substi- 
tuting desirable habits in place 'of them. The 
great majority of original tendencies, however, 
should neither be preserved in their exact origi- 
nal form nor be altogether annihilated, but should 
he so modified and redirected as to further the 
improvement and satisfaction of men's wants 
under the conditions of humane and rational 
living. 

Thus the indiscriminate manipulation of ob- 
jects is modified into instructive play with sand- 
piles, blocks, or ball ; and later into the intelligent 
use of tools — pencil, pen, typewriter, engine, 
printing-press, and the like. Thus the "satis fy- 
ingness" which originally accompanies notice and 
approval by anybody is redirected to form special 
attachments to the approval of parents, teachers, 
one's own higher nature, and heroes, living and 
dead, who are chosen as ideal judges. Thus the 
original incitement of "another trying to get the 
food or victory or admiration which we crave" 
is replaced gradually by rivalry with others in 
all work or play, then by rivalry with our own 
past records or with ideal standards. Thus out 
of "collecting and hoarding at random whatever 
is handy and attractive to the crude interests in 
color, glitter, and novelty," habits of intelligent 
scientific collecting and arranging may be formed, 
and the interest in collecting may be made a 
stimulus to getting knowledge about the ob- 
jects collected. Thus the original interests, the 
tendencies to be satisfied and annoyed, to like 
and dislike, are turned into acquired interests in 
efficient workmanship, kindly fellowship, the wel- 
fare of one's family, friends, community, and 
nation, and finally into the love of truth, justice, 
and the happiness of mankind as a whole. 



Building on the Foundations of Nature 

It has been a common error in education to 
try to make such changes all at once — to demand 
rationality and morality offhand: to stick ideal 
considerations and motives into children in a few 
large doses ; to expect them to work, study, be 
just and be wise because we tell them to. Nothing 
but harm comes from expecting such miracles. 
Little more is gained by telling a man to think, 
or to be accurate, or to have good taste, or to 
honor truth and justice, than by telling a tree to 
bear fruit or a duck to keep out of the water. 
The eventual nature which is desired for man 
has to be built up from his original nature. 

The strengthening, weakening, and redirecting 
of original nature begins soon after birth, so that 
by the time a child enters school he is already 
in many respects a product of our complex 
environment of clothes, furniture, toys, tools, 
language, customs, and ideas. School education 
starts from acquired as well as from original ten- 
dencies. But the original roots of intellect, char- 
acter, and behavior are still potent. Education, 
which works with rather than against them — 
which conserves their energy while modifying 
them into more desirable forms — will have a 
tremendous advantage. Merely to let children 
act out what they are to read, and make what they 
are to understand — that is, to enlist their original 
tendencies to bodily activity and manipulation in 
the service of knowledge-getting — enormously 
facilitates school work. Recognition of the origi- 
nal strength, in boys, of the interest in things and 
their mechanisms, and of the original strength, 
in girls, of the interest in the thoughts and feel- 
ings of persons, will similarly increase the effec- 
tiveness of high-school management. The first 
necessity in education everywhere is to know 
what man will be and do, apart from education. 



WHAT IS THE VALUE OF PLAY? 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



Little children must play; it is a necessity of 
childhood. Normal mental and physical growth 
will never be attained unless the free exercise 
of both ideas and muscles is allowed what is com- 
monly called play. 

The interests and desires of little children are 
very different from those of grown people. Their 
ways of looking at life are different: it is difficult 
for them to understand the reasoning of adults. 



They must be supplied with experiences that will 
help them to grow to an appreciation of the older 
person's point of view. These experiences come 
mainly through play. 

A child's brain must be developed so that he 
may gain the power to reason. It is through 
physical activity, at first spontaneous and later 
purposeful, that the brain is developed. There 
are certain centers in the brain for mere sight 



436 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



and hearing. These are in all brains, even in 
those of the imbecile type, but their presence 
does not indicate that the person understands 
what he sees and hears. Around these centers 
are generally other embryonic nerve cells. If 
these latter cells are developed, a person will 
understand what is presented to his senses; if 
they are not developed, he will not comprehend 
what object his eye is gazing at nor what the 
sounds mean that his ear receives. It is these 
latter cells that are stimulated to grow when 
the body is active and it is in connection with 
these cells that is developed the power called 
mind. 

It is when the far-reaching influence of physi- 
cal exercise in the development of brain power 
or mind is comprehended that the importance of 
early movement-play is realized. Exercise which 
does not overtax the muscles strengthens them, 
gives them more power to exercise again, and if 
this exercise calls for thought expression as well 
as skill, it develops the brain power also. Rhyth- 
mic movement tends to give a control which is 
steady and balanced; if it calls for effort not too 
strenuous, it trains the will power, and if it is 
pleasurable, there is a tendency to repeat it. 

How Early Play Helps 

"To play" and "to educate" may mean the same 
activity if the right conditions are provided for 
the child. A little child is happiest when he is 
busy about something. If it is true play, he is 
not idling his 'time away, he is expending some 
effort and enjoying the activity all the more be- 
cause it calls for exercise of the will power. If 
it is true play, he is storing up knowledge. Dur- 
ing playtime the mind is unhampered and not 
only grasps with ease and quickness but retains 



the impressions made ; the imagination plays 
around them and brings them into relation with 
other experiences in life. The ideas formed in 
moments of play acquire an attractive power 
which urges the child to repeat them and enlarge 
upon them. Playfulness is of value in giving 
richness to the present moment and in determin- 
ing the direction of the attention and the indi- 
vidual's attitude toward the world. Education 
can be provided- by supplying the child with such 
experiences that he will keep himself busy storing 
up useful knowledge. 

Playfulness which is directed in this way de- 
velops gradually into the ideal attitude toward 
work. Pleasurable activity is playful activity. 
It may be called play when the result bears no 
direct relation to what is necessary for living; 
it is called work when it is something that must 
be done. The ideal attitude toward life is enjoy- 
ment of the activities that one must perform. 
The play attitude should gradually pass into the 
right work attitude. A child, after very many 
repetitions, tires of the purposelessness of his 
play and demands results more like that which 
the adult achieves. If he grows normally, he 
must expect of himself more difficult acts, and he 
must accomplish these if he is to keep "the feel- 
ing of power which we find to be the chief source 
of satisfaction in almost all play." 

"To be playful and serious at the same time 
is possible, and defines the ideal mental condi- 
tion." If to the little child his world has an aspect 
of play combined with its earnestness, he will 
form a habit of mind which will develop a self- 
activity that means freedom under the law. The 
best education is given when right habits are 
nourished through the encouragement of play 
and playfulness. 



EXPERIMENT, IMITATION, REPETITION AND 

PURPOSE 

THE PLACE OF EACH IN A LITTLE CHILD'S EDUCATION 



BY 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



Each method named in the title above has some 
value. None should be omitted in the kinder- 
garten, none used exclusively. 

I. If experiment is never allowed in the use 
of materials, the children will not learn how to 
investigate, they will be helpless when confronted 
with any new problem, they will never advance 



beyond their companions, but will lose the ex- 
quisite joy of discovery and contribute nothing 
to the knowledge of their own world. If no 
other method were used, there would be only 
slow progress. A tendency would be formed to 
be governed by the moment's interest and not to 
sum up or connect. Respect might be lost, for 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



437 



material and effort would lie dormant if no prod- 
uct could be conceived better than the one chanced 
upon. 

2. If a child never imitated a good copy or 
followed dictation, he would miss some of the 
uses of the material which he was capable of 
appreciating but not discovering for himself. If 
this method were used exclusively, it would de- 
velop a habit of following blindly and the idea 
of taking the initiative would never be formed. 

3. Where there is no repetition for the sake 
of improvement, there is a tendency to be satis- 
fied with results that have not demanded a child's 
best effort ; many things are attempted but nothing 
done well. A child can measure himself and gain 
fresh impetus for further effort when he sees 
two similar products placed side by side, one 
the result of to-day's work and the other of 
last week's. If this is the only method employed, 
the child uses each material for itself, never in 
relation to any other. It gives him a discon- 
nected view of his environment ; he will not feel 
the unity of thought underlying its various ex- 
pressions in material. 

4. If the purposive method is never used, the 
materials will never be organized upon the high- 
est basis. A desirable end in view demands a 
child's best efifort ; right stimulation will not only 
call forth self-activity to conceive that end, but 
also require that in its accomplishment control 
shall be gained over the particular material used 



and its relation shown to other materials through 
thought. If this method should be used ex- 
clusively, it would defeat its own object; the chil- 
dren would become discouraged and effort para- 
lyzed because they would be tasked to arrive at 
a result before they could control the means 
through which to attain it. 

The factor which determines the particular 
kind of method used in each lesson is the degree 
of control which the child has gained over the 
material placed in his reach. Opportunity should 
be given for instinctive response toward new 
material. The next periods might be devoted 
to the improvement of some form previously 
made very crudely. When a fair amount of con- 
trol has been acquired, the child may seek to 
express some idea that has been roused through 
other material. Imitation may be used at any 
time that the kindergartner feels that the child 
is ready for some use of the material which he 
would miss or be slow in discovering. Dictation 
can take the place of imitation, but it must be 
remembered that "come" guides a child better 
than "go." Dictation is excellent as a playful 
test of what a child has learned. 

The function of the kindergartner in the child's 
organization of materials is simply to adapt the 
environment so that it will provide proper ma- 
terial. This material should respond to some 
desire of the child and yet stimulate toward higher 
attainment than he would reach alone. 



TEN USEFUL PURPOSES IN KINDERGARTEN 

TRAINING 



BY 



LUELLA A. PALMER 



The three aspects of mental activity, investigat- 
ing, testing, and arranging, represent the normal 
process of a child's mental growth. There are, 
therefore, three general purposes in the use of 
material: (i) To discover its possibilities: {2) 
to apply this knowledge, get a rich variety of 
experiences in connection with it, and ("3) to 
choose some end which will bring order and con- 
secutiveness into these suggestions. 

With these general purposes in mind, the 
specific purposes of different lessons might be 
as follows : 

I. To investigate, to discover properties of the 
material, its characteristics and possible uses. 



2. To formulate some purpose, possibly sug- 
gested by the sight of the material, and to con- 
trol material to carry it out. 

3. To observe and follow another's use of 
material. 

4. To formulate a purpose in line with some 
past experience which has been vivid, and to 
control material to express it. 

5. To follow another's use of material because 
it is well adapted to express some idea about past 
experience. 

6. To discriminate between the values of the 
material in order to choose the kind best suited 
to express an idea. 



438 



THE HOME KINDERGARTEN MANUAL 



7. To exercise memory liy repeating some form 
which has heen made at a previous time. 

8. To express the beauty or scientific facts 
which he has discovered can be shown through 
the material. 

9. To show control of the technical naming of 
the material by following a dictation. 

10. To cooperate with others in the use of 
material, by adding to some large form, or by 
building a smaller form which is needed to ex- 
press an idea which has been decided upon by the 
group. 

Points 3 and 10 emphasize the social aspect; 
points 2. 4, 5, 7, emphasize the psychological ; 
points I, 8, 9, emphasize the material; point 6, 
both the material and the individual. 

How would lessons given in these ways help 
to organize a child's mind? 

To Become Alert 

1. If given in the right way a lesson, with in- 
vestigation as its object, would help a child to 
gain an attitude of trying to learn the possibilities 
of any new material and of trying to interpret 
or use them. He would become alert to situations 
and eager to find problems. Kindergartners have 
allowed too little for investigation, they have felt 
it necessary to tell children many things which 
they could find out. Even the facts which we 
have thought necessary to tell children about the 
gifts have not been the most important ones for 
them. 

A child must build up a variety of experiences 
before he can discriminate those things which 
adults feel are values. 

To Formulate a Purpose 

2. When material with which he has already 
experimented is placed in a child's hands, he 
ought to be able to formulate such a purpose 
for expression as can be carried out through 
the material ; in other words, he ought to adapt 
his ideas to bring them somewhat in line with 
the possibilities of the material and then have 
perseverance enough to arrive at his self-deter- 
mined end. 

To Observe What Others Do 

3. It is good practice for a child to follow 
others sometimes and particularly when someone 
has discovered a very good use of the material. 
It not only gives the child a good mode! but it 
spurs him to strive himself for better interpreta- 
tions of the material. 



To Achieve 

4. A lesson which lead-s a child to formulate a 
related purpose and then express it, will develop 
reasoning and perseverance, and calls for creat- 
ivity of the highest kind. A child must be in- 
spired to want to express a certain idea; he must 
think of many different possible ways in which 
he could express it, select the best, and then 
persevere to the end to carry it out. 

To Copy the Success of Others 

5. A lesson where the children copy another's 
model, because that other has been able to plan 
a purpose which is connected with what they are 
trying to express, has the same kind of social 
value as the third type of lesson, except that the 
purpose is a little more organized ; it is the con- 
trolling of material, not to make some irrelevant, 
incidental object, but to follow some connected 
line of thinking. 

To Choose the Best Values 

6. When children choose the material which 
is best adapted to express some idea, good reason- 
ing ability is developed. Such a lesson calls for 
some vivid idea to be expressed (in order to 
give some purpose for expression), then, a con- 
sideration of many possible ways in which it 
can be carried out; next, the selection for definite 
reasons of that material which is best adapted 
to (has greatest number of possibilties for) ex- 
pressing the idea; and. lastly, the sustaining of 
the effort until the completion of the idea. 

To Exercise Memory 

7. Repeating a form is a play which the child 
likes to have with his own mental control ; he likes 
to test his power of recalling some act which it 
gave him particular pleasure to accomplish. He 
re-lives the joy, just as an adult does when he 
repeats the story of some happy experience. 

To Find the Best Way 

8. Through the use of the material a child will 
discover that it is beautiful when placed in cer- 
tain ways, or that there are certain numbers, size, 
and form relations between dififerent parts. If 
a problem is set before him, as, for instance, to 
lay the longest possible sidewalk with the bricks, 
he will be elated over the solving of his problem. 
Care must be taken in the presenting of problems ; 
only a few should be given in which the accom- 
plishment of the deed is the sole end sought; this 



FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH BIRTHDAY 



439 



is not a high aim. Activity which has a purpose 
heyond that of its own realization is the kind 
which is of most benefit to mankind. 

To Clarify His Ideas 

9. Through playing with the material a child 
will discover that certain possible uses of material 
are accompanied by certain similarities in form, 
as, for instance, that it is best to choose an object 
with a flat surface if it is desired to have a form 
which stands still, or that objects with long sides 
make higher houses than those with short sides. 
These characteristics linger on the borderland 
of knowledge unless they are given a name. It 
makes them more definite to provide a term which 
the child feels will cover the facts which he has 
discovered, and which will be intelligible to his 
associates. A technical term should be given in 
order to "preserve a meaning" or to make it 
possible to "transfer a meaning" which a child 
has found in his use of materials. A dictation 
lesson should not be one in which the teacher has 
done all the thinking for the child and he has 
merely followed directions. A dictation lesson 
should be a playful test of a child's grasp of the 
terms which show the definiteness of his discrimi- 
nation with regard to the material. Such a lesson 
should help him to make his ideas clearer. The 



word should always come after experience with 
the material. 

To Cooperate with Others 

10. A lesson with the purpose of cooperating 
with others in the use of material would demand 
quite a degree of social control, a willingness to 
subordinate one's individual preference for the 
sake of making the group-result more complete. 
This could only be done with older children in the 
kindergarten. The results in the material, there- 
fore, should show a good understanding of its 
characteristics and of selection of the best means 
to get the result. Such a lesson as this would 
show the degree to which a child had been led 
to organize his ideas of the material and of him- 
self as an individual in the group. It would call 
for reasoning, perseverance, creativity, cooper- 
ation. 

Lessons of all these different types are needed 
in order to appeal to the whole nature of a child, 
yet those which organize his powers on the higher 
planes should be given as soon as he is ready 
for them. The kind of material used, the ease 
with which it can be controlled, and the number 
of times it has been used, will govern to some 
extent the type of lesson, although the first use 
of any material would probably be that suggested 
under i. 



Beauty and solitude — these are still the shepherd kings 
of the imagination. To go into solitary places, or among 
trees which await dusk and storm, or by a dark shore; to 
be anerve there, to listen to, inwardly to hear, to be at one 
with, to be as grass filled with, as a wave lifted before, the 
wind; this is to know what can not otherwise be known; to 
hear the intimate, dread voice; to listen to what long, long 
ago went away, and to what now is going and coming, com- 
ing and going, and to what august airs of sorrow and beauty 
prevail in that dim empire of shadow where the fallen leaf 
rests unfallen, where Sound, of all else forgotten and for- 
getting, lives in the pale hyacinth, the moon-white pansy, 
the cloudy amaranth that gathers dew. — Fiona Macleod. 



Heavy my heart is, hea\y to carry, 

Full of 8oft foldings, of downy enwrapnients. 

And the outer fold of all is love, 

And the next soft fold is love. 

And the next, finer and softer, is love again. 

And were they unwound before the eyes 

More folds and more folds and more folds would unroll 

Of love — always love, 

And, quite at the last. 

Deep in the nest, in the soft-packed nest. 

One last fold, turned back, would disclose 

You, little heart of my heart. 

Laid there, so warm, so soft, so soft. 

You, little heart of my heart. — E. Pilesbit. 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS 



From the Third to the Sixth Birthday 



Animal life, 399 

Art, 198, 224. 357, 362, 365, 366 

Astronomy, 394 

At the schoolhouse door, 412 

Attainments of fourth to sixth years, 181, 265, 368, 372 

Attainments of the third year, 181 

Autumn, 240 

Bible, The, 336 
Birds, 393, 398, 400 
Books of reference, 205 

Catholic religious education, 338 
Chart of child development, 258 
Chart of child study, 256 
Child studies, 183, 231, 256, 419 
Child-voice, The, 201 
Chimes, 323 
Church-goine:, 337 
Clay, 190, 222, 363 
Color, 225, 270, 300, 367 
Companionship, 184, 373 
Conscience, 410 

Dallving. 256 
Dawdling, 269 
Design, 365 
Destructiveness, 254 
Development, Child's, 183, 231 

Experiment in the kindergarten, 436 

Father as nature-teacher, 406 
Festivals, 243 
Fifth vear. 210, 268 
First grade, 409 
Five-vear-old's day, A, 267 
Flower life. 400 
Fourth vear. 183, 285 
Froebel, 426, 429 

Geometrical insets, 195 
Governing children, 251 

Habits, 229 

Holidays, 243 

Home correctives for kindergarten, 417 

Horace Mann kindergarten, 427 

"House of Childhood," 192 

Humor, 268 

Imagination, 269. 408. 411 
Imitation. 271, 284, 366, 418 
Independence, 274 
Individual stage. 182 
Initiative, 186. 366 

Jewish religious education, 341 

Kindergarten, The. 417. 422, 425, 427, 429, 432, 437 
Kindergarten years. 419 

Language, 204, 370 
Language-training, 188, 228 
Literature for children, 203 
Lying, 254, 272 

Materials for play, see Playthings 
Mischief, 254 



Montessori principles, 192, 417, 432 

Motherhood. 186, 212, 228, 373, 415 

Movement plav, 183, 185 

Music, 305. 308 

Musical instruments, 316, 319, 324 

Nature material, 295, 424 
Newspapers. 364 

Obedience. 252 
Orderliness. 229 
Outdoor life, 229 

Passover, 343 

Personality, 268 

Phonograph records, 309, 310, 313-318 

Physical examinations, 273 

Physical life. 183, 210 

Pictures, 224 

Pictures for the home, 369 

Plant-life. 230, 385 

Play as choice, 184 

Play, Value of. 435 

Plavthings. 189, 193, 211, 289, 292, 375, 423 

Play-yard. 374 

Poems, List of, 330 

Pond life. 243 

Prayer, 208, 334 

Prayers for little children, 209 

Program, 260 

Question-answering, 206, 210 

Records. Day's, 261, 267 

Reference-books. 205, 265, 309-318. 428 

Regularity. 229 

Religion of a little child. 208 

Religious nurture. 208, 332, 338, 341 

Responsibility, 272 

Rocks. 394 

Sabbath, 343 
School, 412 
Self-help, 294, 351 
Sense-training, 433 
Sex-information, 331 
Sixth year, 231, 271 
Social development, 420 
Spring, 242 
Stars, 394 

Stories. List of, 328 
Sunday School. 337 
Supplemental readings, 180 

Tabernacles, Feast of, 346 

Teachers, 412 

Temper, 252 

Thrift, 272 

Tom and Sarah, 405 

Tools, 215, 356, 359 

Tree life, 241, 393, 398 

What an average child may do, 260 

Whining, 251 
Winter, 242 



INDEX TO OCCUPATIONS 

From the Third to the Sixth Birthday 



Autumn occupations, 362, 391 

Ball -play, 286, 350, 378 

Bead-stringing, 198, 298 

Blocks, 187, 212, 290, 292, 426 

Blueprints, 251 

Bricks, 188 

Building plays, 187, 212 

Buttoning-fraraes, 192 

Caves, 212 

Change of plays, 184 

Choosing. 184 

Christmas gifts, 221, 262 

Clay-modeling, 189, 222, 291, 363 

Climbing, 183 

Collecting, 197, 295 

Coloring, 198, 292, 301, 302, 357, 363 

Color-play. 200 

Constructive play, 185. 231, 243, 287, 355 

Cornstalk furniture. 234 

Cutting pictures, 199 

Dances, 281. 320. 353. 382 

Doll-clothing. 239, 360 

Doll-furniture, 232, 359 

Dolls, 382 

Dramatic play, 184, 188, 271, 286, 350. 378 

Drawing, 198, 224, 291 

Fairyland, Making a, 298 
Finger play, 285, 310, 351, 380 
Folk-dances, 280 

Gardening, 229 
Grocery store. Playing, 212 
Group-games, 273, 282 
Gymnasium, Homemade, 277, 375 
Gymnastic plays, 278, 282 

Hammer and nails, 215 
Handwork, 272, 288, 297, 355 
Hearing, 193, 403 
Helping, 228, 407 

Imitative plays, 284 

Ladders, 183, 283 

Marching, 201 
Match-box plays, 217 



Memorizing, 338 
Modeling, 189, 222, 240, 293 
Montessori activities, 283 
Movement plays, 285, 349, 378 
Music, 200, 270 

Nature study, 240, 295, 384, 391 

Painting, 291, 358, 363 

Paper-cutting, 218 

Paper-folding. 218 

Paper-play, 216 

Pets, 229, 387 

Pictures, 270, 273, 340 

Pictures and music, 315 

Pictures and painting, 224 

Plasticine, 291 

Plays for fifth year, 211, 268, 349 

Plays for fourth year, 184 

Plays for sixth year, 243, ill 

Poems, 205, 273 

Program, 'Round-the-year, 260 

Raffia. 249 

Religious activities, 208, 334 

Rhythm, 200, 270, 319 

Sailboats, 215 

Sand-plav, 191. 223. 278 

Self-directed play, 189. 192. 197. 214 

Sense-plays, 193, 285, 349, Zll , 401 

Sight, 194 

Smell, 194, 401 

Social plays, 186, 351, 380 

Song-singing. 202. 306, 309, 313, 324 

Spools, 216 

Spring occupations. 396 

Stars, Studying, 394 

Stories, 203, 213. 273, 327, 330, 341 

Summer occupations, 361, 399 

Swings, 183, 283 

Talking, 228 
Touch, 193, 194 

Wagons, 215. 217, 361 
Walks, 197, 240 
Weaving, 236 
Wildflower garden, 396 
Winter occupations, 361, 392 






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